With two of its top six players on the bench in street clothes, the Nebraska women’s basketball team was already at a disadvantage Thursday, and it got worse when the Huskers got outworked in a 74-68 loss to Iowa.
Starting forward Rachel Blackburn is ill, and Maddie Simon, the first guard off the bench, has a broken arm.
Even after battling back from a 14-point halftime deficit, the Huskers still didn’t play with enough urgency when they got the season-high crowd of 7,329 at Pinnacle Bank Arena behind them at the finish.
Junior guard Ally Disterhoft scored 17 points, and Lincoln Southeast grad Alexa Kastanek added 13 points to lead the Hawkeyes in the Big Ten Conference opener for both teams.