Jankoska nears scoring record as MSU women top Nebraska

EAST LANSING – Tori Jankoska moved another step closer to becoming Michigan State’s all-time leading scorer.

And she helped the Spartan women’s basketball team bounce back from their recent loss and coach Suzy Merchant’s return to the sideline.

Jankoska had 27 points, eight rebounds and seven assists to help MSU to a 93-73 victory over Nebraska in a Big Ten contest Saturday night at Breslin Center.

Jankoska moved seven points away from surpassing the career school scoring record set last year by Aerial Powers with her latest 20-point performance while leading the Spartans (12-4, 2-1 Big Ten) to the win in Merchant’s return.

Merchant made her return to the sideline and coached the Spartans on Saturday after a game absence. She didn’t travel to Purdue on Wednesday after fainting on the sidelines in the late stages of Sunday’s victory over Illinois.

With their coach back on the sidelines, MSU played with a lot of energy early. The Spartans jumped out to a 12-4 advantage and led by double-digits after closing the opening quarter with six straight points. Branndais Agee and Taya Reimer each had six early points to fuel MSU’s strong start.

MSU led by as much as 20 during its strong opening half.

"This league is too good and we really just talked about playing with energy and effort and competitiveness at both ends of the floor and starting out from the beginning and all the way through," Merchant said. "That really included playing a lot more zone today because we really needed to have an opportunity to attack (Jessica) Shepard and double her a little bit. That kind of created a little bit more energy for us too."

Nebraska never cut the lead under single digits in the second half, but got within 10 in the closing minutes. Lexi Gussert hit a late 3 after Nebraska pulled within 10.

"We didn't really panic," Merchant said. "They cut it to 10 and we just sort of kind of put our foot on the gas and executed and got some defensive stops. I was proud of that fact. I thought we matured. There were times when that 10 point could have come to four, and that would have happened during non-conference I think. I really liked our resolve. I thought some kids played extremely well for us down the stretch. There was a couple of big 3s."

Reimer added 13 points and nine rebounds, Jenna Allen had 12 points, and Gussert finished with 11 points for the Spartans, who had their best scoring game of the season in the win.

Jasmine Cincore had 17 points and Jessica Shepard had 15 points to lead Nebraska (4-12, 0-4), which dropped its sixth straight.

Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @brian_calloway.