Lincoln - The Nebraska women's basketball team overcame poor first-half shooting and found a way to win its eighth consecutive game to improve to 10-1 on the season with a 69-62 victory over St. Bonaventure at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Saturday afternoon.
Alexa Johnson led Nebraska with 16 points, while Katie Morse added a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Huskers, who improved to 7-0 at the Devaney Center this season. St. Bonaventure fell to 4-7 on the season. Stefanie Collins led the Bonnies with 20 points, while Tory Vyborny added 16 points and seven rebounds in the loss.
Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said the Huskers continued to perform well in late-game situations.
"We didn't play as well as we would like, and in the first half we relied too much on shooting the three-point shots, but we made the plays we needed to make to win the game," Yori said. "We've been in a lot of close-game situations, and our players know what we need to do in those situations."
With the Huskers clinging to a 62-60 lead with 1:45 remaining in the game, Morse knocked down a pair of free throws to give Nebraska a four-point edge. Margaret Richards, who finished with just four points but added 10 rebounds and a career-high six assists, knocked down two more free throws to give NU a 66-60 lead with 1:16 left.
St. Bonaventure's Lyndsey Maurer connected on a jumper to cut the lead back to four points with 1:07 remaining, before NU freshman guard Kiera Hardy hit 3-of-4 free throws in the final minute to seal Nebraska's fifth consecutive victory by eight points or less. For the game, Nebraska hit 17-of-20 free throws, including 7-of-8 attempts in the final two minutes.
Along with three big free throws from Hardy down the stretch, the freshman from Kansas City, Mo., also hit a pair of big three-pointers in the second half to help the Huskers. She finished with nine points, four rebounds and two assists. But Hardy wasn't the only freshman making a major contribution. Forward Chelsea Aubry scored 10 points and grabbed five rebounds, while Jessica Gerhart scored all six of her points in the second half. She also added four rebounds.
During one crucial stretch in the second half, Hardy, Aubry and Gerhart combined for 15 straight points for the Huskers to turn a tie at 35 into a 50-43 Nebraska lead with 8:35 left in the contest.
The Huskers used a 13-2 surge midway through the first half to race to a 10-point lead before carrying a 29-26 edge over St. Bonaventure into the locker room at halftime.
Johnson led the Huskers with eight points and two rebounds, while Morse added seven points and seven boards in the first half. Johnson and Morse were the only Huskers finding much shooting success in the first half, as NU hit just 11-of-40 shots from the field (26.8 percent), including a dismal 1-of-13 effort from three-point range.
In the second half, Nebraska heated up from the field, shooting 48.1 percent (13-27), including 50 percent (3-6) from three-point range. NU was also 11-of-12 (91.7 percent) from the line in the second half.
Nebraska outrebounded St. Bonaventure, 51-41, marking the 11th straight game that the Huskers have outrebounded the opposition.
The Huskers open Big 12 Conference play on Wednesday when they travel to Norman, Okla., to take on the No. 15 Oklahoma Sooners. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. Nebraska returns home on Saturday, Jan. 10, to battle Iowa State at 7:05 p.m.