Stillwater, Okla. - Kiera Hardy hit a season-high six three-pointers but her final attempt from the left wing as time expired was off the mark, and Oklahoma State held on for a 63-60 win over the No. 25 Nebraska women's basketball team at Gallagher-Iba Arena on Saturday night.
With the loss, Nebraska slipped to 21-8 overall and 9-6 in the Big 12, while Oklahoma State improved to 19-9 overall and 7-8 in conference play.
Hardy, a 5-6 senior guard finished with a game-high 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting from three-point range despite facing a box-and-one defense for most of the night. Sophomore forward Kelsey Griffin matched Hardy with 18 points and a team-high eight rebounds in NU's fourth consecutive loss. The setback also ended NU's five-game winning streak in the series with the Cowgirls.
The Huskers trailed 62-55 with 37.5 seconds left after a pair of free throws from OSU's Dominique Chism, but Hardy connected on her sixth three-pointer of the night seven seconds later to pull NU within four and move ahead of Nicole Kubik in No. 5 on the Huskers' all-time scoring list with 1,869 points.
A few seconds later, Jelena Spiric stole OSU's inbounds pass and found Danielle Page for a layup to cut the Cowgirl lead to 62-60 with 24.8 seconds remaining. Spiric then immediately fouled Andrea Riley after an OSU timeout. Riley hit the second of two free throws to give Nebraska a shot to tie with 24 seconds remaining.
The Huskers took a timeout with 8.5 seconds left after Hardy was triple-teamed by the Cowgirls on the wing, giving NU one last chance to send the game to overtime. Hardy ran from in front of NU's bench off a screen with two Cowgirls chasing her and shot over a third Cowgirl challenging her from the lane. Her shot hit the left side of rim as time expired.
It was the second time in the last four games, joining a 71-70 loss to Texas Tech, in which the Huskers had a Hardy shot at the buzzer to win or tie. Earlier in the season, Hardy also got a runner from the lane with five seconds left bounce off the rim twice in a 66-65 loss at Texas A&M.
"I thought we played with great effort and executed pretty well against Oklahoma State's zone, but we just needed to make one or two more plays," Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said. "I thought Oklahoma State played at a really high level and got great efforts from Danielle Green and Rashidat Sadiq in the second half. They made enough plays to win and that was the difference."
The Huskers tied a season high with nine three-pointers against Oklahoma State's 2-3 zone and box-and-one defenses. For the game, NU hit 23-of-58 field goals (39.7 percent), including 39.1 percent (9-23) from three-point range. NU was also 5-of-7 from the free throw line.
Oklahoma State finished 23-of-62 (37.1 percent) from the field, including 6-of-14 (42.9 percent) from three-point range. OSU also hit 11-of-17 free throws.
OSU finished the night plus-six (42-36) on the boards and plus-three (20-17) in the turnover department, attempting four more shots than Nebraska, but the Huskers actually had more second-chance points than the Cowgirls.
Riley led the Cowgirls with 17 points, including 3-of-4 shooting from three-point range, while Sadiq contributed 16 points, including 12 in the second half. Green scored 11 of her 13 in the second half, while Chism scored seven points and a career-high 14 rebounds.
The Huskers took a 24-18 lead to the locker room at halftime after leading by as many as eight points in the first half. Hardy opened the scoring for NU with a pair of three-pointers to shoot the Huskers to an early 6-1 lead, while Griffin scored Nebraska's final six points of the half.
Spiric added five early points and TK LaFleur provided four points off the bench to help the Huskers in the first half. NU hit just 37 percent of its shots from the field in the opening period, but limited OSU to just 25 percent shooting. The Huskers also outrebounded the Cowgirls, 21-18, in the first half.
Nebraska closes the regular season with Senior Night against Colorado on Tuesday at the Devaney Center. Tip-off is set for 7:05 p.m.
Official Basketball Box Score Nebraska vs Oklahoma State 02-24-07 7 p.m. at Stillwater, Okla. (Gallagher-Iba Arena)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Nebraska 21-8, 9-6 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 3-7 1-4 0-0 0 7 7 5 7 3 2 0 1 28 23 GRIFFIN, Kelsey..... f 7-12 0-0 4-4 2 6 8 2 18 0 3 1 1 29 45 AUBRY, Chelsea...... f 3-8 1-4 0-0 3 4 7 1 7 3 2 0 1 31 02 FORD, Ashley........ g 1-4 1-3 0-0 0 1 1 1 3 3 4 0 2 28 21 HARDY, Kiera........ g 6-15 6-11 0-1 0 2 2 1 18 0 5 0 0 35 12 LaFLEUR, TK......... 2-7 0-1 0-0 1 1 2 1 4 2 3 0 0 23 22 TURNER, Yvonne...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 5 40 MONTGOMERY, Cory.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 5 52 PAGE, Danielle...... 1-5 0-0 1-2 0 5 5 3 3 1 1 1 0 16 TEAM................ 2 2 Totals.............. 23-58 9-23 5-7 8 28 36 16 60 12 20 2 5 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 10-27 37.0% 2nd Half: 13-31 41.9% Game: 39.7% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-13 30.8% 2nd Half: 5-10 50.0% Game: 39.1% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 0-0 0.0% 2nd Half: 5-7 71.4% Game: 71.4% 0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Oklahoma State 19-9, 7-8 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 01 Chism, Dominique.... f 2-9 0-0 3-4 4 10 14 2 7 0 2 1 0 30 13 Sadiq, Rashidat..... f 5-12 0-2 6-7 2 3 5 2 16 1 1 1 4 30 32 Smith, Shaunte'..... f 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 1 10 10 Riley, Andrea....... g 6-11 3-4 2-4 0 3 3 3 17 4 6 0 2 38 31 Green, Danielle..... g 6-16 1-1 0-2 1 3 4 2 13 3 3 1 1 36 05 Sykes, Destanie..... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 12 Hardeman, Taylor.... 2-7 2-6 0-0 2 4 6 3 6 1 1 0 1 32 15 Hood, Christian..... 1-3 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 0 2 0 0 1 0 7 24 Cordero, Maria...... 1-2 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 1 2 0 2 0 2 10 25 Silva, Brisa........ 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 34 Kollo, Rita......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 TEAM................ 3 3 6 Totals.............. 23-62 6-14 11-17 13 29 42 13 63 10 17 4 11 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 7-28 25.0% 2nd Half: 16-34 47.1% Game: 37.1% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-7 42.9% 2nd Half: 3-7 42.9% Game: 42.9% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 1-2 50.0% 2nd Half: 10-15 66.7% Game: 64.7% 4
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Lisa Jones, Scott Yarbrough, Lorenzo R. Alvarez, Jr. Technical fouls: Nebraska-None. Oklahoma State-None. Attendance: 3273 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total Nebraska...................... 24 36 - 60 Oklahoma State................ 18 45 - 63 Nebraska's Spiric fouled out at :24 in the second half