A jubilant team doused its head coach with a victory shower moments after the final buzzer.
Athletic director Trev Alberts was in the house, too, offering postgame congratulations.
ESPN's "SportsCenter" ran highlights from the game, and the college women's basketball landscape took notice after the Huskers chewed up No. 8 Michigan 79-58.
Yes, Tuesday was a special night at Pinnacle Bank Arena for Amy Williams' Husker squad, and before the Big Ten grind continues, the team took some time to soak it in.
Is a special run up next?
"I thought it was a pretty complete game and we responded to the adversity of not having Bella (Cravens) in the lineup and our kids just kind of all rallying and wanted to make up for (her) absence," Williams said. "It was a good start to finish."
The Huskers were ready to go. They were sharp and determined to bounce back after last week's setback at Michigan State. When Michigan did try to rally in the second half, NU had an answer.
After trailing 45-29, Michigan crawled back to within 63-52 with five minutes remaining, but three-point plays by Jaz Shelley and Allison Weidner followed and NU was well on its way to one of its biggest wins under Williams.
"It definitely shows that we can fight back," said Shelley, who had 12 points and 12 rebounds. "We didn't let those little lulls lose us the game and we had so much fight in us we had that belief that we knew we were going to hit the next shot … we never let it deflate us at all."
NU (13-1, 2-1 Big Ten) also wasn't going to let last week's loss at Michigan State, its first of the season, deflate it.
Victory shower. 🚿
— Nebraska WBB (@HuskersWBB)
Losses in college basketball are going to happen. The Huskers left East Lansing, Michigan, at 12-1 — still pretty good. Yet, it didn't sit well with the Huskers, who have been on the cusp of being ranked in the top-25 polls for several weeks now.
"We knew that we had to come out and show the nation that we can really compete with these top teams," Shelley said.
It all came together Tuesday.
Freshman Alexis Markowski, making her first career start in place of the injured Cravens (ankle), had a career night (20 points) against one of the nation's top frontcourts. NU held one of the league's top scorers to half her season average. The Huskers won the rebounding battle and hit some dagger threes, lighting up the bench and crowd.
Special night. Special season brewing.
Williams was asked if Tuesday's response was a sign of a special team.
"I think the sign of a special team is when you can do that consistently," she said. "We're asking them to respond at Michigan State the other night, too. We just need to consistently be able to do that. I think once you're doing that consistently game to game, then that's the sign of a real special team."
Just a few more shots
* Nebraska continued its recent success against top-25 teams. The Huskers defeated five ranked teams last year, including three in the top 15.
Michigan marked the Huskers' first game against a ranked foe this season.
* The Huskers' bench continues to feed the team's success. Even with a couple of players out (Cravens and Ruby Porter), NU had a 20-12 advantage in bench points against the Wolverines.
Reserves Kendall Coley and Allison Weidner each had seven points. NU now has outscored its opponents this year 439-212 in bench points.
* NU senior Isabelle Bourne was tasked with trying to slow down Michigan's Naz Hillmon, and she did just that, holding the talented scorer and all-Big Ten performer to 10 points.
Bourne, who fouled out late in the game, and Hillmon have a history of playing against each other. Bourne was on the Australian national team in the 2019 FIBA U19 World Cup and Hillmon was on the USA team that won in overtime in the gold-medal game.
Photos: Nebraska notches signature win against No. 8 Michigan
Reach Clark Grell at 402-473-2639 or cgrell@journalstar.com. On Twitter at @LJSSportsGrell.