No. 6 Indiana tops Nebraska 72-66 without Holmes

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Grace Berger scored 22 points and No. 6 Indiana survived a late push from Nebraska to win 72-65 on Thursday night.

Aleksa Gulbe added 17 points and Nicole Cardaño-Hillary scored 13 for the Hoosiers (13-2, 5-0 Big Ten), who are 5-0 in the conference for the first time.

Mackenzie Holmes, who leads Indiana in points per game and rebounds per game, missed the matchup with a left knee injury. Kiandra Browne had her first career start in Holmes’ place and had two points and five rebounds in 25 minutes.

Alexis Markowski led Nebraska (13-3, 2-3) in scoring with 17 points and Jaz Shelley added 15.

Nebraska, which came into the game shooting 36% from 3-point range, made 6 of 21 shots from beyond the arc. The Cornhuskers also shot 40% from the floor and took advantage of the Hoosiers' lack of size, outrebounding them 41-35.

Indiana shot 42.4% from the field and made 6 of 18 from 3-point range.

BIG PICTURE

Nebraska: The Cornhuskers fell to 2-3 in conference play and narrowly missed upsetting its second ranked team in three games after beating Michigan on Jan. 4.

Indiana: Holmes’ absence highlighted Indiana’s lack of depth. None of the Hoosiers’ bench players are averaging more than 3.4 points per game and they only had 8 points off the bench Thursday, all from Chloe Moore-McNeil.

UP NEXT

Nebraska: Stays on the road to play Iowa for the second time in three games Sunday.

Indiana: Plays in-state rival Purdue in West Lafayette on Sunday.

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