LINCOLN, Neb. – The Wisconsin women's basketball team stumbled in the final minute of the fourth quarter, narrowly falling to the Cornhuskers 51-48, on Sunday afternoon in Lincoln.

The Badgers (9-17, 2-11 B1G) failed to inbound the ball in the final 30 seconds of the game, forfeiting a late opportunity to steal a road victory against the Cornhuskers.

The Badgers exchanged blows with the Huskers in the fourth, finding themselves down 49-46 with 2:51 remaining. Both teams struggled to find shots, but the game came down to the final five seconds of play.

With 5.6 seconds remaining, the Badgers trailed 49-48 with a chance to inbound the ball to get off a final shot. 

A five second inbound call followed, eliminating the possibility of a late shot to take the lead back.

Despite not pulling away with the win, the Badgers put on one of their best performances of the season. 

Eight days since their last game against the Buckeyes, the Badgers came out ready as ever in Nebraska.

Wisconsin was led by the dominant play of junior Marsha Howard in the first half, scoring 12 of the Badgers' 28 first-half points. The Badgers found offense from nearly everybody in the opening half, with six of the eight available players getting a basket for UW heading up 28-24 at halftime.

The Badgers faced their first roadblock of the game in the third quarter. After taking a 35-28 lead with 5:24 in the third, the Badgers suffered a five-minute scoring drought that allowed Nebraska to take take the lead, 36-35, with a minute remaining. Senior Cayla McMorris knocked down a buzzer beating 3-pointer to jump the Badgers back on top, 38-36, heading into the final quarter of play.

The Badgers exchanged blows with the Huskers in the fourth, finding themselves down 49-46 with 2:51 remaining, and never found an opportunity to retake the lead. 

Wisconsin shot 38.2 percent (21-55) for the game, while Nebraska finished with 40 percent from the field (20-50).

Howard led Wisconsin with 23 points and nine rebounds. McMorris added 11 points and six rebounds in the loss.

Wisconsin committed 10 turnovers in the game, with nine of those coming in the final two quarters. The Cornhuskers gave up 13 turnovers.

The Badgers lost the the rebounding battle 36-30.

Notes to know

-Held Nebraska to their second-fewest points this season and fewest in Big Ten play

-Howard's 23 points were just two points off her career best. Her fifth 20-plus point game this season. 

-Sophomore Courtney Fredrickson season high three steals

-Tied for second-fewest turnovers in a game this season; tying their Big Ten season low of 10 vs. Iowa

Straight from the Court:

Head Coach Jonathan Tsipis:

"We battled, and even though it wasn't our best offensive game, we gave ourselves a chance to win a tough game on the road against a strong defense in a hostile environment."

"I am so proud of our kids, the way they battled and held off big runs and just kept fighting. We've got a lot of takeaways from this game and were gonna continue to progress as a team moving forward."

Up Next:

Wisconsin heads back to Madison, Wednesday, for their final home game of the season against Rutgers at 7 p.m. in the Kohl Center. The game airs live on the Big Ten Network Plus.