No. 20/21 Michigan State Women Fall at Nebraska Wednesday

LINCOLN, Neb. - No. 20/21 Michigan State women's basketball fell to Nebraska, 85-80 Wednesday night at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Despite a valiant effort, the Spartans weren't able to erase a 17-point second-half deficit.

MSU falls to 12-3 with the loss and 2-2 in Big Ten play. The Cornhuskers improve to 12-4 overall and 3-2 in league contests.

Michigan State was led by 21 points from graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault, which was her third 20-point game of the season. Junior guard Theryn Hallock scored 18 points, while junior forward Grace VanSlooten added 12 points. Graduate guard Jaddan Simmons led Michigan State with three steals and five assists.

Nebraska was led by 28 points and eight rebounds from Alexis Markowski.

The Spartans came out hot, scoring the first eight points of the game, leading to an early Nebraska timeout. The Huskers missed their first five shots and had four early turnovers. MSU opened up a 17-6 lead after a 3-pointer by Ayrault at the 2:57 mark. Nebraska used a 6-0 run to trim the deficit to 19-12 before a pair of Ayrault free throws. Behind six points from Inés Sotelo, the Spartans led after the first 10 minutes, 21-15.

Nebraska scored six-straight points to open the second period to tie the game. Another trey gave the Huskers their first lead of the game at 24-23 with under eight minutes left in the quarter. The Spartan offense went cold early, going five minutes without a field goal, leading to a Nebraska 15-0 run. Despite holding the Huskers without a field goal for the final 2:23, Michigan State still trailed 43-33 at the half.

The Spartans tried to cut into the Husker lead in the second half, but Markowski continued to be trouble for MSU. Michigan State was able to get it down to nine before a 6-0 Nebraska run made it a 66-49 game. The Spartans ended the period with a 6-0 run to trail 66-55.

MSU cut it to five after a 3-pointer by junior guard Abbey Kimball, but an old-fashioned 3-point play by Markowski made it a 74-66 game with under six minutes left in regulation. Nebraska had one final run in them to seal the victory. Hallock came to life in the fourth period, scoring 10 of her 18 points in the final 10 minutes of action.

Michigan State returns home to host Washington on Sunday, Jan. 12 at 2 p.m. at the Breslin Center. The Spartans will celebrate Alumni Day and honor the 2005 Final Four team.

Michigan State Women's Basketball Post-Game Notes: at Nebraska 1-8-25
• Michigan State is now 12-3 overall and 2-2 in B1G action . . . the Spartans are 4-2 in games away from home and 1-2 in true road games.

• The Spartans scored 80 points Wednesday to suffer their first loss this season when scoring 70+ points this season, after scoring 67 in loss to No. RV/24 Alabama and 66 in loss at No. 8/8 Maryland . . . it was only MSU's second loss under head coach Robyn Fralick when the Spartans scoring 80 or more points, joining 91 points in a 94-91 loss at No. 14/13 Indiana last season.

• MSU is now 6-13 all-time vs. Nebraska, including 0-7 at Lincoln, having loss the last three overall meetings with the Huskers.

• The Spartans made eight 3-pointers while holding the Huskers to five treys, marking the first time that MSU lost when making more 3-pointers, as they are now 8-1 this season when making more behind the arc.

• Michigan State started with the same starting five for the second-straight game with graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault, graduate guard Jaddan Simmons, senior guard/forward Jocelyn Tate, junior guard Theryn Hallock and freshman center Ines Sotelo opened the game . . . it was Sotelo's second-consecutive start after coming off the bench in the previous 13 games . . . Wednesday's Spartan starting line-up is one of six different starting fives that MSU has utilized this season.

• Graduate guard/forward Julia Ayrault netted 21 points for her third 20-point outing of the season, joining back-to-back outings with 22 vs. California (11/26/24) and a season-high 24 vs. Vanderbilt (11/27/24) . . . it was Ayrault's eighth career 20-point came of her career and MSU is now 2-1 this season and 5-3 in her career when scoring 20 or more points.

• Ayrault has tallied double-figures in the scoring column in all 14 games played this season, after missing the Detroit Mercy game (12/20/24) with an injury . . . Ayrault has 10+ points in her last 27 consecutive games played, part of in 38 of her last 43 games since the start of the 2023-24 season . . . overall, Ayrault tallied 10+ points for the 54th game in her career . . . the Spartans are now 40-14 when Ayrault nets double-figures.

• Ayrault has made at least one 3-pointer in her last 11 games played as part of the 12th time in her 14 games played this season.

• With her two made 3-pointers Wednesday, Ayrault now has 106 for her career, tying former teammate DeeDee Hagemman (2022-24) for No. 18 on MSU's career 3-pointers list with 106 3-pointers.

• Ayrault added a game-high nine rebounds to record her third-straight game with five or more boards as part of the 11th time this season, including ninth game with seven or more rebounds, including nine or more in the last three games.

• With her 21 points and nine rebounds in Wednesday's loss, Ayrault continued her recent hot stretch, including 16.3 points and 10.3 rebounds in her last three games . . . over her last 11 games played, Ayrualt is now averaging 18.0 points and 8.5 rebounds per game, with 198 points and 93 rebounds over that span.

• Junior guard Theryn Hallock registered double-digits for the fourth time in the last five games with 18 points Wednesday, tying her second-highest scoring outing of the season, behind her top mark of 20 points at Maryland (12/29/24) and matching 18 points vs. Eastern Michigan (11/11/24) . . . it was the 10th time in the 15 games this season that Hallock scored in double-figures . . . Hallock logged 10+ points for the 27th time in her career.

• Hallock netted two 3-pointers for her third multiple 3-pointer outing in the last four games and matching her season-high of two triples for the sixth time this season.

• Junior forward Grace VanSlooten came off the bench for the second game in a row and posted 12 points Wednesday . . . she registered her 12th double-digit scoring output in playing 14 of the 15 games this season, missing the Eastern Michigan game (11/11/24) due to illness . . . VanSlooten has tallied 10+ points in 64 times out of 77 career games, after posting double-digits in 52 games while at Oregon.

• VanSlooten snared six rebounds to log her 12th game with five or more boards this season.

• Graduate guard Jaddan Simmons distributed a team-high five assists, marking the eighth game this season that Simmons has topped the team in assists, but it was MSU's first loss this season that Simmons has led the Spartans in the assist column and MSU is now 7-1 when she's the top helper distributor . . . however, it was Simmons' ninth game with three or more helpers as part of her fifth game with five or more assists.

• Simmons also led MSU in the steals column with three swipes . . . it was the Simmons' fifth-straight game with multiple steals, as part of her 11th game this season with two or more swipes . . . it was her second game in a row with three steals and seventh game with three or more steals.

• Junior guard Emma Shumate registered her sixth game with multiple 3-pointers with two treys Wednesday night, but her first in the last four games, last doing so with two triples vs. Montana (12/19/24).

No. 20/21 Michigan State Women Fall at Nebraska Wednesday

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Team Stats

Julia Ayrault

Theryn Hallock

Grace VanSlooten

Jocelyn Tate

Players Mentioned

Julia Ayrault

Theryn Hallock

Abbey Kimball

Emma Shumate

Jaddan Simmons

Jocelyn Tate

Grace VanSlooten

Players Mentioned

Julia Ayrault

Theryn Hallock

Abbey Kimball

Emma Shumate

Jaddan Simmons

Jocelyn Tate

Grace VanSlooten