Kansas City, Mo. - The sixth-seeded Nebraska women's basketball team used its most balanced attack of the season and a strong surge to open the second half to battle its way to a 60-45 win over the No. 11 seed Oklahoma State Cowgirls in the first round of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Tournament at Municipal Auditorium on Tuesday night.
The win for the Huskers marked their first Big 12 Tournament victory since 2000, and moved Nebraska into a second-round matchup with third-seeded Kansas State on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. The game will be televised live on Fox Sports Net (Channel 37 in Lincoln) and carried live on radio by the Pinnacle Sports Network (1400 KLIN in Lincoln and 1110 KFAB in Omaha).
Nebraska improved to 17-12 overall after finishing the Big 12 regular season with an 8-8 league mark. The Cowgrils saw their season come to an end with a 7-20 record on the season.
Sophomore forward Chelsea Aubry led the Huskers with 15 points and six rebounds, while first-team All-Big 12 sophomore guard Kiera Hardy added 13 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals to produce her 25th straight game scoring in double figures.
Senior point guard Jina Johansen added a strong all-around effort with nine points, eight assists, five rebounds and two steals while playing all 40 minutes to earn the first Big 12 Tournament victory of her career. Big 12 Newcomer-of-the-Year Jelena Spiric also provided a solid contribution with 10 points, eight rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Nebraska, which was tied with Oklahoma State 29-29 at the half, allowed just 16 second-half points to the Cowgirls, while the Huskers won going away by gradually building the lead to double digits and not allowing OSU to get closer than seven points the rest of the way.
The Huskers were able to pull away from the Cowgirls midway through the second half thanks to a stifling NU defense and poor shooting by OSU, which finished the game shooting just 30.6 percent (19-62) from the field and just 25 percent (4-16) from three-point range.
Nebraska did not break all the way out of its recent shooting slump, hitting just 39.3 percent (22-56) from the field and just 20 percent (2-10) from beyond the three-point arc. But the Huskers outrebounded the Cowgirls 37-34, forced 18 OSU turnovers and outscored Oklahoma State 14-3 at the free throw line to claim the victory. It was just the Huskers' second win this season when shooting less than 40 percent from the field.
"Our players did a great job of executing what we asked them to do on defense tonight," said Nebraska Coach Connie Yori, who picked up her first Big 12 Tournament victory at Nebraska. "We played Oklahoma State very different this time compared to how we played them in our first meeting in Stillwater. We sagged off a lot on their guards and really played defense inside-out."
The 16 points allowed by the Huskers in the second half represented the lowest second-half output by an NU opponent this season, surpassing the 21 points surrendered by NU in a win over Kansas on Jan. 29 in Lincoln, and a win over Southeastern Louisiana in Lincoln on Dec. 1.
Nebraska's defense continued to improve throughout the game, holding OSU to just 23.3 percent (7-30) shooting in the second half, while limiting honorable-mention All-Big 12 guard Nina Stone to just two second-half points.
Stone finished with 12 points on the night, while Taleesha Conder led the Cowgirls with 14 points, despite sitting out much of the second half in foul trouble.
Conder, who had just one foul in the first half, picked up two in the first 1:12 of the second half to send her to the bench with the score still tied at 29. Without Conder on the floor over the next four minutes, NU surged to a six-point lead at 38-32. Conder then picked up foul No. 4 with 13:35 left. She did not return for another four minutes, and the Huskers pushed the lead to double-digits for the first time at 45-34 with 9:26 left.
Without Conder on the floor, Stone did not score as Johansen and LaToya Howell provided blanket defense. Conder scored OSU's next five points after returning to the court at the 9:26 mark, but was shut out the rest of the way.