Lincoln - Sophomore forward Kelsey Griffin produced her 10th double-double of the season with 23 points and 13 rebounds, while Kiera Hardy added 19 points and five boards to lead the No. 22 Nebraska women's basketball team to a 76-67 victory over No. 13 Baylor at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Saturday afternoon.
Playing in front of 6,105 fans and a Fox Sports Net national television audience, the Huskers raced to a 16-2 lead to open the game and outscored No. 13 Baylor 15-4 to open the second half to lead from start to finish in a nine-point win.
With the victory, Nebraska improved to 19-4 overall and 7-2 in the Big 12. The Huskers moved into a tie with No. 9 Oklahoma for first place in the league standings, as NU matched its best nine-game start in Big 12 history. Nebraska moved one game in front of the Lady Bears, who slipped to 19-4 overall and 6-3 in the league.
Along with an impressive performance from Griffin on the offensive end, the Huskers received a school-record performance from forward Danielle Page. The 6-2 junior from Monument, Colo., set a school-record with nine blocked shots while also pulling down 11 rebounds, including nine on the defensive end.
Page moved up to third on the school's career block list with 108 in her career by nearly doubling her previous career high of five blocks in a game. She also became one of only five players in Big 12 history to block nine shots in a game. Griffin added one block to give the Huskers a season-high 10 rejections on the day.
NU out-blocked Baylor, the Big 12 leader in blocks, 10-5, marking the first time this season that the Lady Bears had surrendered more blocks to an opponent.
"Danielle Page did an outstanding job inside on the defensive end," Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said. "For her to block nine shots against Baylor's inside game was pretty remakable. If you think about Danielle's situation, with her coming back from ACL surgery at the end of Junes, it is pretty amazing what she has been doing."
Nebraska's school-record-tying 10 blocked shots as a team helped the Huskers limit Baylor's Wade Trophy candidate Bernice Mosby to just 1-of-13 shooting from the field. The 6-1 senior forward finished with a Baylor career low three points, while adding six boards. She entered the game ranked second in the Big 12 in scoring at 19.0 points per game and third in the league with 9.3 boards per contest.
Senior forward Chelsea Aubry added eight points and five rebounds inside for the Huskers, while freshman Cory Montgomery pitched in four points and two rebounds on the block, as NU's forwards combined for 38 points, 29 rebounds and 10 blocks against the Lady Bears.
"I thought Nebraska was the more physical team today and that is part of the game," Baylor Coach Kim Mulkey said. "You have to give Nebraska credit, but at the same time I was disappointed in the way some of our inside players responded."
For the game, Nebraska hit 23-of-60 shots (38.3 percent) from the field, the first time this season that the Huskers notched a win when shooting less than 40 percent from the field. NU connected on 31.3 percent (5-16) of its three-point attempts, while hitting 78.1 percent (25-32) of its free throws. NU also outrebounded Baylor, 46-40.
Baylor managed just 32.3 percent (21-65) shooting from the field, but connected on 5-of-11 three-pointers (45.5 percent). BU also hit 20-of-23 free throws, including 11-of-13 in the first half to keep the Huskers within range, despite hitting just 10-of-35 shots (28.6 percent) from the field in the opening half.
After racing to a 16-2 lead, Nebraska saw Baylor pull within one point on two occasions in the final three minutes of the first half. But the Huskers closed the half on a 4-0 run at the free throw line from Griffin and fellow sophomore TK LaFleur, who added nine first-half points, to take a 38-33 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Nebraska bolted out of the gates to start the second half, as Aubry buried a three from the corner before Jelena Spiric hit a jumper to push NU's lead back to 10 points at 43-33 less than one minute into the second half. BU scored four straight points to slow the NU tide, but the Huskers answered with a 10-0 run over a 2:08 stretch, capped by a three-point play from Aubry to give NU its biggest lead of the game at 53-37 left with 15:40 to play in the game.
Griffin led the Huskers with 15 first-half points in just 11 minutes because of foul trouble. Page stepped in for Griffin and had a huge first half, Page tied the school record with seven blocks in just 13 minutes off the bench in the opening period, while adding six rebounds.
Junior point guard Angela Tisdale led the Lady Bears in the first half with 14 points, including a pair of three-pointers, off the bench. Tisdale finished with a team-high 18 points to lead four Lady Bears in double figures. Danielle Wilson added 14 points and seven boards off the bench, while Latara Darrett pitched in 11 points on 3-of-3 shooting from three-point range. Jhasmin Player, who scored Baylor's only four points in the first eight minutes of the game, finished with 10 points.
Nebraska returns to Big 12 road action to shoot for a sweep of Big 12 North Division foe Kansas State on Wednesday, Feb. 7, at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. with an FSN Midwest telecast and free Internet video available world wide on Huskers.com.
Official Basketball Box Score Official Basketball Box Score Baylor vs Nebraska 02/03/07 2:35 p.m. at Bob Devaney Sports Center - Lincoln, NE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Baylor (19-4) (6-3) TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 14 ALLISON, Rachel..... f 0-1 0-0 1-2 1 1 2 4 1 1 0 1 1 15 15 PLAYER, Jhasmin..... f 5-9 0-0 0-0 1 2 3 3 10 3 0 0 2 35 32 MOSBY, Bernice...... c 1-13 0-0 1-1 3 3 6 2 3 1 4 0 1 28 03 MORROW, Jessica..... g 3-9 0-3 2-2 1 3 4 2 8 0 3 2 0 18 13 DARRETT, Latara..... g 4-10 3-3 0-0 1 2 3 4 11 1 1 0 2 25 01 BRADLEY, Jessika.... 0-3 0-0 2-2 2 3 5 2 2 0 0 0 1 13 11 WILSON, Danielle.... 3-10 0-0 8-9 3 4 7 3 14 0 3 2 1 26 12 WYATT, LaToya....... 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 7 20 TISDALE, Angela..... 5-9 2-4 6-7 0 3 3 4 18 3 2 0 1 33 TEAM................ 4 2 6 Totals.............. 21-65 5-11 20-23 16 24 40 25 67 9 13 5 9 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 10-35 28.6% 2nd Half: 11-30 36.7% Game: 32.3% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-4 50.0% 2nd Half: 3-7 42.9% Game: 45.5% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 11-13 84.6% 2nd Half: 9-10 90.0% Game: 87.0% 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Nebraska (19-4) (7-2) 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 1-4 0-1 0-0 3 2 5 1 2 1 5 0 0 27 23 GRIFFIN, Kelsey..... f 7-14 1-1 8-9 5 8 13 3 23 0 0 1 2 26 45 AUBRY, Chelsea...... f 2-4 1-2 3-3 2 3 5 3 8 0 1 0 0 23 02 FORD, Ashley........ g 1-5 0-1 6-7 0 0 0 3 8 4 2 0 1 33 21 HARDY, Kiera........ g 7-18 2-7 3-3 1 4 5 3 19 2 2 0 1 28 12 LaFLEUR, TK......... 3-8 1-4 2-2 0 0 0 2 9 1 0 0 0 22 13 KUHLMANN, Kala...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 6 22 TURNER, Yvonne...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 2 0 0 1 0 0 5 40 MONTGOMERY, Cory.... 1-2 0-0 2-2 1 1 2 0 4 0 0 0 0 3 52 PAGE, Danielle...... 1-5 0-0 1-6 2 9 11 2 3 1 1 9 0 27 TEAM................ 1 3 4 1 Totals.............. 23-60 5-16 25-32 16 30 46 19 76 9 15 10 4 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-30 40.0% 2nd Half: 11-30 36.7% Game: 38.3% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-11 36.4% 2nd Half: 1-5 20.0% Game: 31.3% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 10-12 83.3% 2nd Half: 15-20 75.0% Game: 78.1% 4
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Michael Price, Brenda Pantoja, Dee Kanter Technical fouls: Baylor-None. Nebraska-None. Attendance: 6105 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total Baylor........................ 33 34 - 67 Nebraska...................... 38 38 - 76