The 21st-ranked Huskers kept off a strong start with an 85-48 win against North Alabama Tuesday at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

But Potts’ injury lingered for the final 25 minutes of the game and into the evening, with 24 games remaining in the regular season.

Nebraska coach Amy Williams said after the game that she was not told whether it was a season-ending injury or not.

“We haven’t had that determination yet,” Williams said.

With five minutes left in the second quarter, Potts went down on defense with what appeared to be a non-contact injury, immediately clutching her knee and screaming in pain. After about a minute, she was taken straight to the locker room as her teammates quickly gathered in a tight circle.

After halftime, Potts returned to the bench area with her teammates. She immediately sat behind the bench and clapped for her teammates. Later, Potts returned to the locker room with the medical staff.

“She’s pretty upset,” Williams said. “Her teammates are quite upset. And we’ll just wait and see once she has a chance to be evaluated where we go from here.

Potts has had a great start to the season, averaging 17 points and eight rebounds on 69% from the field. She was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year last season.

Junior guard Allison Weidner was out with an injury but should be able to return soon.

Nebraska guard Callin Hake scored a career-high 17 points, one more than her previous best, on 5 for 7 shooting. And sophomore forward Jessica Petrie also had one of the best games of her career with 14 points, five rebounds and two of Nebraska’s 10 blocked shots.

Britt Prince had another good game with 13 points on 5 for 8 shooting and six assists. Alexis Markowski had 10 points and six rebounds.

Nebraska outscored North Alabama 36-10 in the paint and had 16 rebounds. The Huskers were 8 for 21 on three-pointers.

After her injury, the other ten players tried to stay focused and were inspired by the strength Potts brings to her game.

“We’re a family,” Hake said. “And we play for each other, and we play with each other and I think we did that tonight. And people stepped up. Natalie excites us by getting rebounds and we had six people with five or more rebounds. It was just an understanding that we had 20 minutes to go out and play for her.

“We don’t know what the outcome may be, but I know our God is a miracle worker, so we are optimistic about that.”

Williams was proud of what Amiah Hargrove, Kendall Coley, Kendall Moriarty and Petrie did while Potts was out.

“Everyone is just trying to do their part and make up for Natalie’s absence,” Williams said.

After a somewhat scrappy start to the game, when Nebraska had four quick turnovers and missed some shots at the basket, Nebraska began connecting its passes and went on a 10-0 run in the final five minutes of the first quarter for a 15- 4 lead. The four points scored by the Lions matched the fewest points the Huskers had ever allowed in an opening quarter.

Hake continued to take it to the basket until she was stopped, but that didn’t happen, scoring six points in the quarter.

“I think what I bring to this team is when we play with tempo and when I go chasing the paint, good things can happen,” Hake said. “That was kind of my mentality, and it worked well for us.”

Jazzy Klinge led North Alabama (2-3) with 11 points.

Next comes Nebraska’s biggest non-conference game of the season, Friday against Creighton (1-2) at Sokol Arena in Omaha.