ROCKFORD, Ill. – Emerson Green hit a driving layup with four seconds remaining to give the UNI women’s basketball team a 64-63 win over Creighton to advance to the quarterfinals of the WNIT.
The Panthers held a four-point lead, the largest in the quarter, with 1:17 remaining but Jayme Horan battled with a three bringing the lead to one point. Megan Maahs was sent to the free-throw line and extended the Panther lead 62-59 before Tatum Rembao made a layup with 27 seconds left. With four seconds left, Green drove to the hoop and stretched out to make the winning bucket, 64-63.
The Panthers led for the entirety of the first quarter and the majority of the second half until Creighton went on a 10-2 scoring run to end the quarter ahead of UNI, 33-31. Creighton claimed the lead twice in the game, once in the second quarter and again with 10 seconds left in the third quarter.
Megan Maahs held the game-high 20 points and recorded five rebounds. Karli Rucker led the Panthers in rebounds with nine and scored 13 points, nine of which were in the first quarter. Temi Carda recorded 19 points on the night and Tatum Rembao grabbed 14 points, both leading the Bluejays.
In the final quarter alone, both teams traded buckets and managed to come within one-point deficits of each other eight separate times. Creighton shot 51.0% from the field making 25-of-49 points where the Panthers landed 34.9% from the field.
For the first time in program history, UNI advanced to the quarterfinals of the WNIT. The Panthers are set to play St. Louis (14-4) for a chance to advance to the semifinals of the WNIT in Memphis. The quarterfinal game will take place Monday, Mar. 22 at 7 p.m. at the UW Health Sports Factory in Rockford.
GAME NOTES:
– This marks the second time in program history that the Panthers won two games in the WNIT, the last time being in 2016. It will be the first trip to the quarterfinals for UNI (the 2016 tournament included 64 teams.)
– Emerson Green made the game-winning layup to advance the Panthers to the third round.
– Megan Maahs score a game-high 20 points.
– Maahs is three points away from claiming the No. 15 spot on the All-Time Scoring list. She has 1,131 total points and 864 total rebounds.
– Karli Rucker is tied for No. 7 on the All-Time Scoring List with Lizzie Boeck at 1,405 points.
