Until Friday night when, in the fourth quarter of a tense, physical rivalry game — all tied, shot clock bleeding fast, a whole arena of fans leaning from their seats — her superstar teammate passed her the ball in the corner.

“I was just going to let it fly,” said the senior Creighton forward, repeating the mantra of both the men’s and women’s programs. Brake’s funky over-the-head shot found the net. Shortly after, Brake’s teammate, Molly Mogensen drained another trio.

Ballgame. CU led by six and would eventually win by the same margin, 80-74, for its third straight victory over Nebraska. If Lauren Jensen’s steady accumulation of 31 points served as the victory’s turkey, Brake’s 11 points, six rebounds, four steals and three assists were the best side dish on the pre-Thanksgiving table.

And that 3-pointer? In front of 2,374 at Sokol Arena, it was the sixth of her Brake’s five-year career. She had made just 18.5% of her attempts, and it was a what-the-heck kind of shot after Jensen, having called for her teammates to clear out was stymied on her way to the hoop.

Jensen’s thought as Brake shot?

“Um,” she said. She laughed. She paused.

“Lauren,” Brake said in a jokingly terse voice.

“You know,” Jensen continued, “I will have to admit, it’s not like the confidence I have with Morgan (Maly) being in the corner. But I was super, super hyped when it went in.”

It gave CU (2-2) a 69-66 lead with two minutes, 46 seconds left on the clock. Mogensen hit her fourth 3-pointer of the quarter for a 72-66 lead 20 seconds later. NU coach Amy Williams called timeout. Nebraska, ranked No. 21, never got closer than four after that.

“We hit 50 points in the paint,” Williams said. “We did what we needed to do there. But they hit 13 3s and we hit five. When you get outscored by eight points from behind the arc in a six-point game, that was kind of the biggest difference.”

It has been the difference for years in the series. Creighton hit six more 3s in its win last year and six more 3s the year before that in another win. When NU extended its defense outward early in the second half, CU, full of seniors, adjusted and got cutters to the rim for easy hoops. When the Huskers went to a zone for a bit — opponents rarely do against the Bluejays — Mogensen said she was surprised.

“Especially with all the shooters we have on our team,” Mogensen said. “But once they went into that, we called a play and, something’s going to go up.”

CU came in shooting 35.5% from 3. Nebraska had shot 46% from 3 heading into Friday night.

The Huskers, adjusting to the season-ending injury of leading scorer Natalie Potts, chose to pound the ball to center Alexis Markowski. And CU, in guarding Markowski with a single undersized defender, accepted that’d she have a good night.

Markowski put up 26 points and 12 rebounds. But she did not spend the night throwing to wide open teammates for 3. CU smothered the perimeter.

“I thought we did a good job in taking away 3s from a lot of their kids,” Creighton coach Jim Flanery said. “We kind of had said that, they’d shot the 3 so well, that was going to be M.O. until it wasn’t.”

So CU stayed close as it traded 3s for Markowski’s 2s. Other than Husker freshman guard Britt Prince, who had 20 points in her fifth career game, Creighton didn’t let any of the other NU guards shake loose for a scoring run. For much of the game, Jensen and Maly (18) held serve with Markowski and Prince.

Until Mogensen smoked four 3s in the fourth quarter. And Brake, a dependable role player for five years, had perhaps the best stat line of her career. Certainly, she hit the biggest shot of her career.

“Sometimes the easier ones to shoot are when the shot clock’s is so low you know you have to shoot it,” Flanery said. “She had her feet. It’s still a low percentage shot.”

Her told a story about Brake’s last made 3, a bank job against Xavier, and Flanery joking with the Big East official that Brake had made her first trio of the year.

“And he goes ‘and probably her last,’” Flanery said.

Not so. Brake hit one more that year. And one this year. And Creighton played the more complete fourth quarter against a ranked rival.

“From a psychological standpoint, I told our team — whether it’s true or not — I told them, we’ve been stressed more than they’ve been stressed,” Flanery said. “Through their five games, through our three games, we’ve been stressed. When we get to the fourth quarter and felt like it’d be a close game — it doesn’t mean that’s why we won, but I don’t think it hurts.”

CU started its season with a loss at South Dakota State, a win over Drake and a loss at No. 10 Kansas State. NU had played five unranked teams.

“I told them before the game, ‘you’re going to be in a better position to execute in a close game than they are,” Flanery said. “Whether it’s true or not, I told them that because I wanted them to believe that.”

Brake believed — and delivered.

“I told my teammates, I was shooting it,’” Brake said. “I knew it was going up.”