LINCOLN, Neb. — Before Saturday, Nebraska junior point guard Jina Johansen was 6-for-16 in 3-point shooting this season.

Saturday against Iowa State, she took advantage of the Cyclones’ 2-3 zone defense and connected on four 3-point field goals — three in the first half — and finished with a career-high 15 points to lift the Huskers to a 62-57 conference win in front of 5,809 fans at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.

Nebraska, which had eight total wins last season, is now 11-2 overall and 1-1 in Big 12 play. The win snapped a 10-game losing streak against the Cyclones.

Johansen said the 3-point shots she was making were important in the first half because of Iowa State’s zone defense.

“They were giving a lot of space to us early [in the first half],” she said. “In the second half, we got inside a lot more, because they were spreading the zone a lot more.”

Nebraska head coach Connie Yori said Johansen’s shooting in the first half lifted the team.

“Obviously, Jina’s barrage of 3’s in the first half … was big for her,” Yori said. “That made a big difference for us. It opened up some things on the inside for us in the second half.”

With the loss, Iowa State fell to 7-5 overall and 0-1 in Big 12 play.

ISU head coach Bill Fennelly said the Cyclones couldn’t make shots to win the game.

“Basketball is a game where you have to make shots and when you throw that many bricks up there like we did tonight, you’re not going to win. It’s simple as that,” Fennelly said. “We held them to 62 points. I thought defensively we were pretty dang good against a very physical team. I thought we did the things we really need to do defensively to have a chance. When you shoot the ball like the way we shot it, it’s tough.”

With Iowa State leading 35-30, the Huskers’ Jessica Gerhart scored the last four points of the first half to trim the lead to 35-34.

Iowa State didn’t make a basket in the first six minutes of the second half, one of several cold offensive stretches in the last 20 minutes.

Because Nebraska dropped a 70-51 decision to No. 15 Oklahoma Wednesday, Yori said getting the Huskers’ first conference win was big.

“It was a very good win for us. Big 12 wins haven’t come easy in the last two years,” Yori said. “Anytime we get one, we’ve got to take it. I thought our players did a great job of hanging in there. We continued to play good defense that kept us in the game.”

Redshirt junior Anne O’Neil said the Cyclones came out strong.

“Especially in the first 10 minutes, [we were] playing our game and working well with our defensive matchups,” O’Neil said. “In the second half, they came out and made some shots. We were at a stretch without making any. We had some bad turnovers at critical times and that’s the way the ball bounced today.”

O’Neil finished with a game-high 18 points and a team-high four assists. Junior Lisa Kriener had 16 points and five rebounds. Redshirt sophomore Brittany Wilkins had a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds and junior Mary Fox had 12 rebounds. As a team, Iowa State was 3-of-18 in 3-point shooting.

Iowa State hosts No. 2 Texas on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Hilton Coliseum.