Lincoln - In a thrilling season opener that featured big runs by both teams, senior forward Danielle Page scored nine points in the final 5:22 to power a 13-0 NU surge and help the Huskers to an 81-74 victory over UTEP at the Devaney Center on Friday night.
"This was a very, very good opening win for our basketball team," Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said. "We think UTEP is going to be a pretty darn good basketball team this season, and we are expecting them to win 23, 24 or 25 games based on the season they had last year and the players they have this year. I was scared to death this afternoon that I had set our team up for failure by scheduling this game."
But her players, led by first-time starters Page, Tay Hester and Kaitlyn Burke, along with a gutsy performance from Kelsey Griffin, gave Yori plenty of reasons to smile after the game.
In her first career start, Page scored a career-high 19 points and pulled down nine rebounds to lead four Huskers in double figures. Page did most of her damage in a 2:16 stretch when she turned a 63-60 NU deficit with 5:23 left into a 71-63 lead with 3:07 remaining.
The Huskers actually fell behind 61-54 with 7:49 remaining after an 8-0 run by the Miners' Jareica Hughes that lasted just 1:18 and gave UTEP its biggest lead of the night. Hughes finished with game highs of 27 points, nine assists and four steals.
Enter Griffin, who was not expected to play after suffering a rib injury in the second half of Monday's exhibition win over Nebraska-Omaha. Even though Griffin was taken from the Devaney Center by ambulance to the hospital for testing on Monday night and did not practice the entire week, the first-team All-Big 12 forward made her conference-leading 65th consecutive start.
She also came up big in the clutch, stopping UTEP's run with a free throw that came after an offensive rebound. Griffin, who finished with 15 points and eight rebounds, also made two of the biggest defensive plays of the night by drawing personal fouls No. 4 and No. 5 on the Miners' Natasha Lacy, who despite sitting on the bench with four fouls for nearly 13 minutes in the second half, still managed 18 points before fouling out in the final minute.
Page followed Griffin's miss on the second shot free throw attempt with a rebound. Page missed a jumper, but Tay Hester, who finished with a double-double in her Husker debut with 13 points and 12 boards, got another offensive rebound and knocked down a jumper against her former UTEP teammates to cut the lead to 61-57 with seven minutes left.
Freshman point guard Kaitlyn Burke then brought the 2,162 fans at the Devaney Center to their feet by burying her third three-pointer of the night to pull NU within 61-60 with 6:05 left. Burke, a native of North Vancouver, British Columbia, finished with 13 points in her NU debut.
Hughes paused NU's 6-0 run with a jumper to push the lead back to 63-60, before Page took over.
The 6-2 forward from Monument, Colo., tied the score with a three-point play with 6:22 left, then after a steal and layup by Hester gave NU the lead back at 65-63, Page drew the fifth foul of the night on UTEP's 6-5 center Izabela Piekarska with 4:27 left.
Page connected on both free throws, then picked up the defensive stop at the other end with a defensive rebound. She then connected on a jumper off an assist from Burke to push NU's lead to 69-63 with 3:57 to play. "Big D" wasn't done yet, helping pick up a stop on the defensive end before sprinting down the floor and making a spectacular catch and finish off a pass from Hester to run NU's lead to 71-63 with 3:07 left.
Page picked up another stop on the defensive end by pulling down the rebound of Hughes' missed three-point attempt, before Griffin pushed NU's lead to 10 points at 73-63 with a jumper with 2:27 to play.
UTEP was unable to recover from NU's 19-2 eruption, as the Huskers picked up a home-opening victory for the 32nd time in 34 years. NU also won its 45th consecutive game when scoring 80 or more points.
The win for the Huskers on Friday may have been one of their most memorable openers in history. Not only was Nebraska starting four players who had never started a game in an NU uniform, Griffin was not expected to play, let alone start, just hours before the game.
"I made the decision at 4:30 that I was playing, and it was my decision, without any pressure," Griffin said after the game. "I just wanted to play. I think our win tonight shows a lot about our team. It shows we have heart, because that team (UTEP) is going to win a lot of games this year. It shows that we want to win and we are willing to play hard. Our rebounding was phenomenal tonight and we made a lot of plays down the stretch."
Nebraska finished the night with a 45-29 advantage over the Miners on the boards, including 16 offensive rebounds. The Huskers also hit 49.2 percent (29-59) of their shots from the field, including 54.5 percent (6-11) of their three-pointers. NU also outscored UTEP by 14 at the free throw line, connecting on 17-of-26 free throw attempts.
Griffin was a major player from the outset, scoring six points and grabbing six rebounds in the first half to help the Huskers build a 15-point first-half lead. But the Miners answered behind the playmaking of both Hughes and Lacy.
With Lacy and Hughes leading the way, the Miners erupted for a 25-7 burst in the final 7:01 of the first half to take a 41-38 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Lacy, playing in her first regular-season game with UTEP after transferring from TCU after the 2005-06 season, scored 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field, while Hughes added a dozen points in the opening period.
Nebraska had taken its biggest lead of the night at 31-16 after a layup by Yvonne Turner with 7:17 left in the first half, on the strength of a balanced attack that included eight first-half points from Burke, and six points apiece from Griffin, Page and Hester.
UTEP, which finished the 2006-07 season with a 22-8 record, closed the night by hitting 47.1 percent (32-68) of its shots from the field, including 7-of-20 three-pointers, but the Miners were just 3-for-7 at the free throw line. UTEP committed just 16 turnovers, while forcing 21 miscues by NU.
Nebraska returns to action on Sunday at the Devaney Center when the Huskers play host to 2007 NCAA Elite Eight qualifier Ole Miss. The Rebels will be playing their first regular-season game against the Huskers. Tip-off is set for 2:05 p.m., with live radio coverage provided by the Husker Sports Network on 98.1 FM-KFGE in Lincoln. A free audio broadcast will also be available on Huskers.com, along with live video on Nebraska's premium website, HuskersNside.
Official Basketball Box Score Official Basketball Box Score UTEP vs Nebraska 11/09/07 7:06 pm at Bob Devaney Sports
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: UTEP 0-1 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 14 PIEKARSKA, Izabela.. f 3-7 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 5 6 1 2 3 1 18 40 MARISETT, Tasha..... f 0-6 0-2 1-2 0 3 3 4 1 0 1 0 0 19 03 HUGHES, Jareica..... g 12-23 3-8 0-1 1 2 3 1 27 9 3 0 4 39 10 KREZEL, Kasia....... g 5-10 2-4 0-0 1 5 6 4 12 3 5 1 3 32 11 LACY, Natasha....... g 8-14 1-3 1-1 2 2 4 5 18 0 3 0 1 24 05 PORRAS, Claudia..... 1-2 0-0 0-1 0 4 4 0 2 0 0 2 0 16 20 TRUKSHANINA, S...... 1-3 1-3 0-0 0 0 0 0 3 1 1 0 1 22 30 WILLIAMS, Timika.... 2-2 0-0 1-2 4 2 6 4 5 1 1 2 1 27 33 JONES, Brittnay..... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 TM.................. 1 1 2 Totals.............. 32-68 7-20 3-7 10 19 29 24 74 15 16 8 11 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 18-35 51.4% 2nd Half: 14-33 42.4% Game: 47.1% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-7 57.1% 2nd Half: 3-13 23.1% Game: 35.0% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 1-2 50.0% 2nd Half: 2-5 40.0% Game: 42.9% 0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Nebraska 1-0 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 23 GRIFFIN, Kelsey..... f 6-10 0-0 3-5 3 5 8 2 15 3 2 0 2 26 52 PAGE, Danielle...... c 8-14 0-0 3-3 2 7 9 3 19 0 2 1 0 31 22 TURNER, Yvonne...... g 2-5 0-2 1-2 1 1 2 3 5 2 2 0 1 26 24 KELLEY, Dominique... g 2-5 2-3 1-2 0 4 4 1 7 3 2 0 0 21 32 HESTER, Tay......... g 5-12 0-1 3-8 5 7 12 4 13 2 4 0 2 31 05 BURKE, Kaitlyn...... 3-4 3-4 4-4 0 0 0 0 13 3 4 0 0 25 11 NEALS, Nicole....... 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 0 9 13 KUHLMANN, Kala...... 0-1 0-0 0-0 2 0 2 0 0 2 1 0 0 9 40 MONTGOMERY, Cory.... 2-6 1-1 2-2 0 3 3 2 7 0 1 0 0 15 42 BOBER, Nikki........ 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 44 REDMON, Catheryn.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 TEAM................ 3 1 4 1 Totals.............. 29-59 6-11 17-26 16 29 45 15 81 16 21 1 5 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 15-34 44.1% 2nd Half: 14-25 56.0% Game: 49.2% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-7 57.1% 2nd Half: 2-4 50.0% Game: 54.5% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 4-5 80.0% 2nd Half: 13-21 61.9% Game: 65.4% 4,1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Michael Price, Lisa Jones, Kelly Copeland Technical fouls: UTEP-None. Nebraska-None. Attendance: 2162 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total UTEP.......................... 41 33 - 74 Nebraska...................... 38 43 - 81