Freshman guard Sam Haiby scored all of her career-high 20 points after the halftime break to put Nebraska (1-2) in a position to win it Friday night in Pullman, Washington, but cold offense late doomed NU down the stretch. Washington State (1-2) scored the game’s final five points in double overtime to earn an 87-84 win over head coach Amy Williams’ Huskers.
Nebraska closed the fourth quarter on a 12-2 run to tie the game at 70 and force overtime, the run capped by two game-tying free throws from sophomore forward Taylor Kissinger with 56 seconds left. Nebraska's defense held the Cougars without a field goal for the final 5:41 of regulation and without a point over the last 3:19. Kissinger finished with seven points on the night.
With 1:38 left in the first overtime period, the Huskers were up four. Nebraska wouldn’t score again in the frame. Wazzu tied the game with a layup off a busted sideline out-of-bounds play with 2.1 seconds left to send the game to a second overtime period.
Nebraska came out aggressively to start the second overtime period, as Maddie Simon (15 points, seven rebounds) and Hannah Whitish (11 points, five rebounds, four assists) hit back-to-back threes to give NU an 84-82 lead with 3:23 left. Whether it was tired legs or something else, Nebraska couldn’t buy a bucket from then on. Whitish had a shot at the horn to tie the game again on a triple but it fell wide.
Center Kate Cain added a double-double with 10 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots before fouling out with just over a minute to play in the second overtime.
Team defense proved to be a major issue for the Huskers. Washington State outshot Nebraska for the game, connecting at a 45.6 percent clip from the field while hitting at a 40.9 percent clip from 3 (9-for-22). The bulk of that damage was done by four players; 82 of the Cougars’ 87 points came from those Borislava Hristova (31 points, six boards), Chanelle Molina (26 points, five 3s made), Maria Kostourkova (13 points, 19 rebounds) and Alexys Swedlund (12 points, four steals).
Nebraska hit 42.5 percent from the floor and 41.2 percent from 3-point range.
The Huskers will be back in action on Black Friday when they begin a two-game tournament in Miami, Florida, against from No. 24 Miami as part of the Miami Thanksgiving Classic.
Derek is a newbie on the Hail Varsity staff covering Husker athletics. In college, he was best known as ‘that guy from Twitter.’ He has covered a Sugar Bowl, a tennis national championship and almost everything in between (except an NCAA men’s basketball tournament game… *tears*). In his spare time, he can be found arguing with literally anyone about sports.
