Hardy, Griffin Earn Big 12 Honors

Lincoln - Junior Kiera Hardy earned her second first-team All-Big 12 award while Kelsey Griffin added All-Rookie honors when the conference women's basketball coaches announced their annual awards on Friday, March 3.

Hardy, a 5-6 junior guard from Kansas City, Mo., became just the second Husker in history to earn back-to-back first-team All-Big 12 honors, joining WNBA All-Star Anna DeForge in 1997 and 1998.

Hardy finished the regular season ranking among Big 12 leaders in scoring (17.3 ppg, 7th), assists (3.4 apg, 13th) and steals (1.9 spg, 4th), while leading the league in three-pointers made per game with 2.48 per game.

Hardy's 67 three-pointers on the season shattered the previous Nebraska junior single-season record of 47 set by Sabrina Brooks in 1987-88. Hardy also owns the Husker record with 182 career three-pointers, 27 more than DeForge produced in her award-winning career.

In addition to her all-conference honors, Hardy claimed her third Big 12 Player-of-the-Week award of the season on Friday. She claimed the honor after leading the Huskers to a 75-62 victory in the their season finale at Missouri on Wednesday. Hardy scored a game-high 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting from the field, while adding five assists and three steals. It was Hardy's second Big 12 weekly award in the past three weeks.

Griffin earned honorable-mention All-Big 12 accolades after an outstanding freshman season for the Huskers that claimed her a spot on the league's All-Rookie Team. The 6-2 forward from Eagle River, Alaska, ranks as Nebraska's second-leading scorer and top rebounder with 13.6 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.

Griffin, who owns two of the top five performances by a freshman in school history with her 31-point, 14-rebound effort against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Nov. 27, and her 28-point, 12-board performance at Kansas State on Feb. 4, was on pace for one of the top five freshman seasons in school history in scoring, rebounding and field goal percentage before coming down with an illness before the Huskers' victory over Kansas State on Feb. 18.

Since the illness, Griffin's scoring and rebounding numbers have dropped, but she has managed to help the Huskers to four wins in their past five games while continuing to start every game.

Nebraska finished the regular season with a 16-11 overall record and an 8-8 Big 12 mark to claim the No. 6 seed in next week's Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship at Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas. The Huskers will face 11th-seeded Colorado (9-20, 3-13) in the tournament's first round on Tuesday, March 7, at 8:30 p.m.