LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Amiah Hargrove came off the bench to hit back-to-back 3-pointers and eight straight points as No. 25 Nebraska built a 16-point lead after a quarter and rolled to an 84-65 win over previously unbeaten Minnesota in a Big Ten Conference opener on Sunday.
The Cornhuskers (8-1) were dominant on the boards, outrebounding the Golden Gophers 49-30 while amassing 22 assists on their 31 made baskets in the wire-to-wire win.
Minnesota (10-1) came into the game as the only unbeaten team in the Big Ten while earning votes in the women’s Top 25 poll but had difficulty getting untracked against its first ranked opponent, finishing the first half with just 19 points.
The Huskers got exactly half their offensive output from the bench. Alberte Rimdal led the effort, hitting 4 of 8 from the field, including 2 of 5 from stance, to score 12 points while dishing six assists. Starters Alexis Markowski and Callin Hake each scored 11 points and Markowski grabbed a team-high nine rebounds. Hargrove finished with 10 points and eight rebounds. Freshman Britt Prince had her string of five-straight double-digit scoring efforts stopped, finishing with seven points, seven rebounds and three assists.
The Gophers were paced by Mallory Heyer’s 12 points and eight rebounds, Tory McKinney had 11 points while Grace Grocholski and Alexsia Rose each added 10 points.
Neither team will play a Big Ten opponent until after Christmas. Nebraska faces its toughest road trip of the season when it travels to play No. 1 UCLA on Dec. 29 and No. 6 USC on New Year’s Day. Minnesota plays at Wisconsin on New Year’s Eve.
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