South Bend, Ind. - Sophomore forward Chelsea Aubry and Jessica Gerhart combined for 29 points and five three-pointers but it wasn't enough as No. 10 Notre Dame powered past the Nebraska women's basketball team, 73-57, in the quarterfinals of the SportsView.TV Preseason WNIT at the Joyce Center on Sunday night.
The loss dropped the Huskers to 1-1 on the young season and knocked NU out of the 16-team Preseason WNIT. The Fighting Irish improved to 2-0 and advanced to the tournament semifinals where they will take on No. 6 Duke at the Joyce Center on Wednesday.
Preseason National Player-of-the-Year candidate Jacqueline Batteast led Notre Dame with 24 points, five rebounds and seven assists, while Borton added a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Aubry led the Huskers by tying her career high with 16 points, including a pair of three-pointers in the first half, while adding four rebounds, two assists and one steal.
"Chelsea played her tail off," Coach Connie Yori said. "She played about as hard as any player I've ever coached, and she did it for 30 minutes. I told our players in the locker room, that we need everybody to play like Chelsea played tonight. Obviously we're not happy with losing, but I think we learned a lot about ourselves tonight."
Gerhart added 13 points, including the first three three-pointers of her career, while adding six rebounds.
Sophomore guard Kiera Hardy, who opened the season with 28 points against Western Illinois in the first round of the Preseason WNIT on Friday night in Lincoln, struggled with her shooting, connecting on just 2-of-16 field goal attempts, including an 0-for-7 effort from three-point range, before fouling out.
"Kiera obviously struggled tonight, hitting just 2-of-16 shots, but we can look at that as a positive thing for our team," Yori said. "We still only lost to a top-10 team on the road by 16 points. If Kiera hits three or four more shots, which would still be a subpar shooting night, we would have been right there with Notre Dame."
The Huskers also received a boost off the bench from sophomore guard Heather Kephart, who returned to the court for the first time since last February. Kephart hit a three-pointer, grabbed two rebounds and distributed an assist in 10 minutes of action for NU. For Kephart, who hit 17 three-pointers in Nebraska's first eight games as a true freshman last season, it was her first three-pointer since knocking one down against Louisiana-Lafayette on Dec. 14, 2003.
True freshmen Sarah White and Danielle Page helped the Huskers hang in against the Irish. White scored six points, including a three-pointer, while Page added six points and five rebounds for the Huskers.
Although Nebraska hit seven three-pointers on the night, the Huskers struggled with their shooting against a stingy Notre Dame defense. NU hit just 21-of-64 field goals (32.8 percent). NU managed 36.8 percent shooting from three-point range by knocking down 7-of-19 shots from long range, but NU also struggled from the free throw line, connecting on just 8-of-15 free throw attempts.
Notre Dame hit 28-of-65 field goal attempts (43.1 percent), but just 1-of-7 three-point attempts (14.3 percent). The Irish also hit 16-of-21 shots from the free throw line (76.2 percent), while outrebounding the Huskers, 49-37. The Huskers did take excellent care of the basketball, committing just nine turnovers on the night. Notre Dame turned the ball over just 11 times.
The Huskers return home to Lincoln on Monday and return to the Devaney Center for competition on Friday, Nov. 19, when they take on Northern Colorado at 7:05 p.m.