Lincoln - The Nebraska women's basketball team led by eight points midway through the second half, but No. 8 Oklahoma battled back for a 77-69 victory in front of 7,727 fans at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Saturday afternoon.
Sophomore forward Kelsey Griffin scored a game-high 22 points and added eight rebounds, while two-time All-Big 12 guard Kiera Hardy pitched in 18 points, as Nebraska slipped to 13-3 overall and 1-1 in the Big 12. The loss also snapped Nebraska's seven-game winning streak. Oklahoma, who was led by 19 points and 14 rebounds from Courtney Paris and a career-high 18 points from Kendra Moore, improved to 12-1 and 2-0 in the league with its 21st straight Big 12 Conference victory.
In a duel between the Big 12's best freshmen from 2006, Griffin outscored Paris despite playing three fewer minutes than the All-American.
Nebraska led 43-35 with 15:34 remaining in the game, before OU responded with a 10-2 burst to tie the score at 45 with 11:45 left. Moore gave OU its first lead of the second half with a jumper at 47-46. Nebraska regained the lead on a Griffin layup, before Chelsi Welch gave OU the lead with a three-pointer at 50-48 with 10:40 left.
Moore pushed OU's lead to five at 53-48 with a three-pointer, but Nebraska answered with its only three-pointer of the game as Jelena Spiric connected from long range before TK LaFleur tied the score at 53 with a layup with 9:35 left after a Spiric steal. Spiric finished the game with nine points, five rebounds, four assists and a career-high-tying five steals.
The Sooners pushed the lead back to five on a Welch three-pointer at 58-53, and extended the margin to six on Welch's layup to make it 63-57 with 6:03 remaining. Welch finished with 14 points and four rebounds before fouling out.
Nebraska refused to give up, narrowing the gap to 67-65 on a Spiric layup with 2:09 left. The Huskers then forced a turnover with a travel by Paris on the low block, and Hardy got a clean look at a three-pointer from near the top of the key that would have given NU the lead back at 68-67 with 1:36 left.
But Hardy's shot was long, as she finished the day 0-for-7 from three-point range. Hardy was not alone in her shooting struggles, as the Huskers suffered through their worst shooting day of the season, hitting just 31.4 percent (22-70) of their shots from the field, including a season-low 5.9 percent (1-17) from three-point range.
"You've got to hit some shots and make some plays if you are going to beat a team as good as Oklahoma," Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said. "I'm definitely encouraged by the fact that we did not play our best basketball game and we were still in a one possession game in the final minute. In fact, we had our worst shooting night of the season, and we were still in position to win the basketball game."
Despite their shooting woes, Nebraska took OU to the wire, as a pair of Griffin free throws kept the Sooner lead at just two (69-67) with 59 seconds left in the game.
The Sooners hit consecutive free throws down the stretch to seal the win, including the biggest two of the game from Paris, who hit a pair with 47 seconds left to put OU up four at 71-67, before blocking a Griffin shot attempt and grabbing the rebound with 26 seconds left to close the door on the upstart Huskers.
Oklahoma hit 49.2 percent of its shots from the field, including 37.5 percent (6-16) from three-point range. OU also connected on 61.9 percent (13-21) of its free throws. The Sooners won the rebounding battle, 44-39, but entered the game outrebounding their opponents by nearly 17 boards per contest. NU beat OU on the offensive glass, as the Huskers scrapped their way to 20 offensive boards, while the Sooners managed 15. Nebraska also forced 18 OU turnovers, while committing a season-low nine of its own.
It was the Huskers who stormed back from an 11-point first-half deficit to take a 33-31 halftime lead on the strength of 11 first-half points from Griffin and 10 points from Hardy.
Nebraska battled its way to the lead despite hitting just 8-of-31 field goals, including 0-of-9 three-pointers, by knocking down 17-of-20 free throws in the first half. The Huskers spread the floor and continually used dribble penetration to put the Sooners in deep foul trouble, with Paris playing just eight first-half minutes after picking up her second foul. Paris managed just five points and four rebounds in the opening stanza.
Moore, Amanda Thompson and Leah Rush also committed three first-half fouls. The Huskers had first-half foul trouble with Hardy and Griffin both picking up two fouls in the opening period. NU added 7-of-8 free throw shooting in the second half to finish the day 24-of-28 (85.7 percent) at the foul line.
Welch and Paris each fouled out of the game for the Sooners, while Rush and Thompson finished the game with four fouls. Griffin, Hardy and Spiric all finished the game with four fouls for the Huskers.
Nebraska will take the midweek off from competition before traveling to Lawrence, Kan., to take on the Kansas Jayhawks on Saturday, Jan. 13, at 7:05 p.m. The Huskers will take a school-record eight-game road winning streak with them to Allen Fieldhouse.
Official Basketball Box Score Official Basketball Box Score Oklahoma vs Nebraska 01/06/07 2:06 p.m. at Bob Devaney Sports Center - Lincoln, NE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Oklahoma (12-1) (2-0) TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 24 Rush,Leah........... f 2-5 0-1 4-4 3 2 5 4 8 2 2 0 0 23 03 Paris,Courtney...... c 8-9 0-0 3-6 2 12 14 5 19 2 3 6 0 29 22 Welch,Chelsi........ g 5-8 3-3 1-4 1 3 4 5 14 2 1 2 0 22 33 Brown,Britney....... g 2-5 1-4 0-1 0 0 0 1 5 1 3 1 1 21 34 Higgins,Erin........ g 1-3 1-3 0-0 0 1 1 1 3 3 0 0 1 35 01 Stevenson,Nyeshia... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 05 Paris,Ashley........ 2-11 0-0 0-0 5 3 8 1 4 3 2 2 2 28 11 Plumley,Jenna....... 0-2 0-1 2-2 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 4 20 Moore,Kendra........ 7-13 1-4 3-4 2 3 5 3 18 3 0 0 1 25 21 Thompson,Amanda..... 2-3 0-0 0-0 2 2 4 4 4 0 5 0 0 11 32 Sanchez,Krista...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 TEAM................ 3 3 1 Totals.............. 29-59 6-16 13-21 15 29 44 25 77 16 18 11 5 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-32 37.5% 2nd Half: 17-27 63.0% Game: 49.2% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-8 37.5% 2nd Half: 3-8 37.5% Game: 37.5% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 4-6 66.7% 2nd Half: 9-15 60.0% Game: 61.9% 4
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Nebraska (13-3) (1-1) TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 04 SPIRIC, Jelena...... f 2-9 1-1 4-6 2 3 5 4 9 4 0 0 5 36 23 GRIFFIN, Kelsey..... f 7-14 0-1 8-10 5 3 8 4 22 1 3 1 0 26 45 AUBRY, Chelsea...... f 1-7 0-3 0-0 4 3 7 1 2 1 1 0 0 30 02 FORD, Ashley........ g 0-3 0-2 2-2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 18 21 HARDY, Kiera........ g 6-18 0-7 6-6 1 3 4 4 18 0 3 0 0 30 11 NEALS, Nicole....... 0-3 0-1 0-0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 10 12 LaFLEUR, TK......... 2-6 0-1 2-2 1 2 3 2 6 0 1 0 0 20 13 KUHLMANN, Kala...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 22 TURNER, Yvonne...... 0-2 0-1 2-2 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 6 40 MONTGOMERY, Cory.... 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 3 52 PAGE, Danielle...... 3-7 0-0 0-0 4 2 6 2 6 1 1 0 0 19 TEAM................ 2 2 4 Totals.............. 22-70 1-17 24-28 20 19 39 18 69 8 9 2 6 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 8-31 25.8% 2nd Half: 14-39 35.9% Game: 31.4% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 0-9 0.0% 2nd Half: 1-8 12.5% Game: 5.9% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 17-20 85.0% 2nd Half: 7-8 87.5% Game: 85.7% 3
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Clarke Stevens, Cameron Inouye, John Fullilove Technical fouls: Oklahoma-None. Nebraska-None. Attendance: 7727 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total Oklahoma...................... 31 46 - 77 Nebraska...................... 33 36 - 69