Lincoln - Kelsey Griffin scored 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field to help the Nebraska women's basketball team run to a 30-point second-half lead and hold on for 79-65 victory over the Creighton Bluejays at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Friday night.
Senior forward Danielle Page added 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field to help the Huskers improve to 5-2 on the season, including a 4-0 mark at the Devaney Center. Creighton slipped to 4-3 on the season.
"For 25 minutes, we could do no wrong," Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said. "I thought we played some great basketball to build a 30-point lead. We were hitting shots, playing great defense and we were taking care of the basketball. Then for the next 15 minutes, it seemed like we couldn't do anything right."
The Huskers, who led by 16 points at 41-25 at the half, put the game out of reach early in the second half, outscoring the Jays 16-2 coming out of the locker room to take a 57-27 lead on a Cory Montgomery jumper with 14:56 left in the game.
Montgomery, who was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field on the night, was part of Husker forward foursome with Griffin, Page and Catheryn Redmon, who went a combined 21-of-27 from the floor against the Bluejays. Those four NU forwards also combined for 18 rebounds and four blocked shots.
At that point, Sam Schuett was the only Jay who had hit a field goal for more than 10 minutes in the game, but Schuett made sure she kept hitting field goals the rest of the way.
In fact, Schuett filled it up for a career-high 30 points and 10 rebounds, while burying 4-of-5 three-pointers to help Creighton pull within 74-62 before NU held on for a 14-point win. Schuett finished the night 11-of-14 from the field, while the rest of the Bluejays hit just 12-of-48 field goals.
Schuett helped Creighton to a quick 11-6 lead early in the game by scoring four points off the bench, but Nebraska answered in a big way by shutting out the Bluejays for the next four minutes to take an 18-11 lead after a free throw by Danielle Page with 10:19 left in the half.
After Kelsey Crites stopped the run with her jumper at the 9:56 mark, Schuett scored four straight field goals for the Jays to keep CU within striking distance at 24-19 with five minutes left in the half.
But the Huskers held the Jays without a field goal for the final five minutes of the first half, closing on a 17-6 surge to take a 16-point lead into the locker room at intermission.
Nebraska continued to play stifling defense, holding the Jays without a field goal for the first 3:23 of the second half before Crites knocked down her second and final jumper of the night. By that time, Nebraska's lead had grown to 27 points.
Montgomery, who finished the night with nine points and four rebounds, pushed NU's lead to 30 points for the first time at 57-27 with 15:01 left, before Schuett stopped the bleeding with a three-pointer. Redmon, who added five points, two rebounds and a block off the bench, then contributed a traditional three-point play to increase NU's lead back to 30 points with 13:58 left.
Schuett answered with a three-point play of her own at the 13:32 mark, and after a Nicole Neals layup at the 12:48 mark, somebody else for Creighton finally got involed.
Sara Cain's three-pointer at the 12:32 mark stopped a span of nearly 22 minutes for the Bluejays where Schuett and Crites were the only players to hit field goals.
Cain's three-pointer seemed to spark the Jays, igniting an 11-0 run that included baskets from Ally Thrall and Megan Neuvirth, before another three-point play by Schuett trimmed NU's lead to 62-44 with 10:20 left.
Creighton cut NU's lead to 12 points at 74-62 with 2:41 left in the game, before Page and Griffin hit back-to-back layups to push the lead back to 16 points. Unfortunately for the Huskers, Griffin was fouled on her final shot of the night and fell hard to the floor, aggravating a rib injury suffered in NU's exhibition finale against UNO.
Tay Hester added a strong night with eight points and eight rebounds, as nine Huskers found the scoring column. As a team, NU hit 56.6 percent (30-53) of its shots from the field but knocked down just 17-of-32 free throws (53.1 percent) to allow the Jays to hang around in the contest.
Creighton managed just 37.1 percent (23-62) from the field, but connected on 7-of-19 three-pointers and 12-of-14 free throws. NU outrebounded CU, 38-35, and won the turnover battle, 18-16.
Nebraska closes its weekend at home by playing host to 2007 NCAA Tournament qualifier Robert Morris at the Devaney Center on Sunday at 5:05 p.m. The Colonials won the Northeast Conference title and finished with a 24-8 record last season. The Nebraska men's basketball team hosts Arizona State on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Devaney Center, and men's ticket holders will receive free general admission seating into the women's game. Men's ticket holders will also be allowed to stay inside the Devaney Center following the men's game and will not be asked to leave the arena or re-enter.
Official Basketball Box Score Official Basketball Box Score Creighton vs Nebraska 11/30/07 7:06 p.m. at Bob Devaney Sports Center - Lincoln, NE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Creighton (4-3) TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 21 Neuvirth, Megan..... f 1-4 0-0 0-1 0 0 0 5 2 2 4 0 1 18 42 Cain, Sara.......... f 4-13 1-4 0-0 4 5 9 3 9 0 2 0 0 29 54 Voss, Kristina...... c 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 2 0 1 0 0 1 18 12 Thrall, Ally........ g 3-7 1-4 1-2 1 3 4 1 8 3 4 0 2 37 22 Kaus, Michelle...... g 1-3 1-3 0-0 0 0 0 1 3 1 1 1 0 16 03 Woodard, Kelsey..... 0-3 0-2 4-4 0 1 1 4 4 1 0 1 0 15 11 Schuett, Sam........ 11-14 4-5 4-4 4 6 10 3 30 0 4 0 0 29 15 Crites, Kelsey...... 2-14 0-1 3-3 1 6 7 3 7 2 1 0 3 24 23 Bronson, Tyrai...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 5 40 Nelson, Kellie...... 1-3 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 2 1 2 0 0 9 TEAM................ 1 1 2 Totals.............. 23-62 7-19 12-14 11 24 35 23 65 11 18 2 7 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 10-27 37.0% 2nd Half: 13-35 37.1% Game: 37.1% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-5 20.0% 2nd Half: 6-14 42.9% Game: 36.8% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 4-4 100 % 2nd Half: 8-10 80.0% Game: 85.7% 0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Nebraska (5-2) 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 8-10 0-0 4-6 3 4 7 3 20 3 1 0 2 24 52 PAGE, Danielle...... f 7-11 0-0 3-8 1 4 5 1 17 1 2 3 1 25 22 TURNER, Yvonne...... g 2-4 1-2 2-2 1 2 3 1 7 0 2 0 2 23 24 KELLEY, Dominique... g 0-3 0-2 0-2 1 1 2 1 0 3 2 0 0 21 32 HESTER, Tay......... g 3-8 0-0 2-2 0 8 8 4 8 3 3 0 1 21 05 BURKE, Kaitlyn...... 1-3 0-2 2-4 0 2 2 2 4 3 0 0 1 21 11 NEALS, Nicole....... 2-4 1-3 1-2 0 0 0 2 6 0 0 0 1 14 13 KUHLMANN, Kala...... 1-3 0-0 1-2 0 1 1 1 3 3 0 0 1 18 15 WHITTAKER, Monique.. 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 35 PERIAGO, Jessica.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 40 MONTGOMERY, Cory.... 4-4 0-0 1-3 1 3 4 2 9 0 4 0 0 14 42 BOBER, Nikki........ 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 5 44 REDMON, Catheryn.... 2-2 0-0 1-1 1 1 2 0 5 0 1 1 0 12 TEAM................ 4 4 1 Totals.............. 30-53 2-9 17-32 8 30 38 18 79 16 16 4 9 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 16-30 53.3% 2nd Half: 14-23 60.9% Game: 56.6% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-5 40.0% 2nd Half: 0-4 0.0% Game: 22.2% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 7-12 58.3% 2nd Half: 10-20 50.0% Game: 53.1% 6
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Gator Parrish, Doug Knight, Michol Murray Technical fouls: Creighton-None. Nebraska-None. Attendance: 2585 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total Creighton..................... 25 40 - 65 Nebraska...................... 41 38 - 79
Points in the paint-CU 28,NU 32. Points off turnovers-CU 18,NU 24. 2nd chance points-CU 12,NU 8. Fast break points-CU 2,NU 8. Bench points-CU 43,NU 27. Score tied-3 times. Lead changed-2 times. Last FG-CU 2nd-01:26, NU 2nd-01:37. Largest lead-CU by 5 1st-14:20, NU by 30 2nd-15:01.