Lincoln ? The Nebraska women’s basketball shot to an 8-0 lead in the first two minutes and never looked back as the Huskers battled to a 69-60 victory over Tennessee-Martin on Tuesday night at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>
With the victory <?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>Nebraska improved to 6-2 on the season, while Tennessee-Martin slipped to 1-6 on the season.
Along with opening the game on an 8-0 run, the Huskers closed the first half on a 10-0 run in the final three minutes to carry a 42-27 lead into the locker room.
The Huskers led by as many as 16 points at 32-16 in the first half, before Tennessee-Martin went on an 11-0 run to cut NU’s lead to five points at 32-27 with three minutes left in the half.
Bojana Samardziska sparked the Huskers off the bench, scoring a career-high 13 points in the first half alone. Kiera Hardy added 10 points and five rebounds in the first half.
Samardziska finished with 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the field. Entering the game, the 6-4 center from Belgrade, Serbia & Montenegro entered had totaled just 21 total points in the first seven games this season.
Hardy, Nebraska’s leading scorer entering the contest, led all scorers with 20 points and added six rebounds.
Samardziska and Hardy were the only two Huskers to produce double figures on the night, but all nine of the Huskers who saw action found the scoring column. Jessica Gerhart finished with nine points and a team-high seven rebounds, while Jelena Spiric contributed six points and four boards. Elena Diaz, Chelsea Aubry and Jina Johansen all pitched in four points, while Johansen tied her season-high with eight assists.
Nebraska led by as many as 19 points at 67-48 with 6:16 remaining in the contest, but the scrappy Skyhawks refused to give up, whittling NU’s lead back to single digits in the final two minutes.
Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said Huskers earned the victory, but Tennessee-Martin deserved plenty of credit.
"You have to give Tennessee-Martin all the credit in the world for the way they battled out there," Yori said. "When you get down by 15 or 16 points, the game can go one of two ways for your team. Either you can throw in the towel and let the game get out of hand, or you can decide to keep fighting. They decided they wanted to fight, and they made us work for everything."
Tennessee-Martin guard Danielle Page kept the Skyhawks close by scoring 11 points in the first half. Page finished with a team-high 16 points, including four three-pointers. Andreika Jackson added 15 points and a team-high five rebounds, while Jenny Lannom gave UTM three players in double figures by finishing with 10 points.
Nebraska shot 49.2 percent (29-59) from the field, but hit just 3-of-15 three-pointers on the night and connected on just 8-of-14 free throws. UTM finished at 48.1 percent (25-52) from the field, and hit 5-of-15 three-pointers. The Skyhawks also hit 5-of-6 free throws.
The Huskers enjoyed a 35-28 advantage on the boards, and forced 17 UTM turnovers, while committing just 14 turnovers of their own.
Nebraska hits the road for an important non-conference game at No. 10 Ohio State on Saturday, Dec. 11, in Columbus, Ohio. Tip-off for the game is set for 1 p.m. Central time, and the game can be heard on Froggy 98 FM in Lincoln.