Nebraska women rally to top Illini 74-70, face UCLA in Big Ten quarterfinals
Freshman Britt Prince scored 17 points with five assists and 10th-seeded Nebraska rallied for a 74-70 win over seventh-seeded Illinois in the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday night, closing with a 13-5 run.
Prince hit consecutive jumpers to tie the game at 65 with 2:23 to play and Jessica Petrie drilled a 3-pointer to give the Cornhuskers the lead, their first of the fourth quarter, at 1:40.
After two Illini free throws, Nebraska had a three-shot possession, getting a clutch layup from Petrie on an inbounds pass from Prince. Callin Hake and Prince followed with two free throws each to make it 74-67. The Illini then got three free throws with 3.9 seconds.
The Cornhuskers outscored the Illini 25-14 in the fourth to pick up their fifth win after trailing by 10-plus points.
The Cornhuskers face second-seeded and fourth-ranked UCLA in the quarterfinals on Friday. The Bruins won the regular-season meeting 91-54 in a conference opener in December.
Petrie and Petra Bozan both had 11 points for Nebraska (21-11), which had all nine players score.
Genesis Bryant led Illinois (21-9) with 20 points with Kendall Bostic adding 19 and Adalia McKenzie scoring 16 with 10 assists.
Illinois jumped out to a 9-0 lead and led 32-30 at the half with Bostic scoring 16 points.
Prince hit a 3-pointer early in the second half to give Nebraska its first lead, 38-37, but after six lead changes Illinois took a 56-49 lead into the fourth.