Long Beach, Calif. -- The Nebraska women's basketball team opened the game on a 21-2 run and never looked back in a 75-52 victory over Long Beach State at the Walter Pyramid on Saturday night.
Nebraska improved to 9-2 on the season while extending its winning streak to six straight games, while Long Beach State slipped to 1-8 on the season.
Freshman guard Kaitlyn Burke led the Huskers with 14 points and five assists, while adding a career-high seven rebounds. Sophomore forward Cory Montgomery added 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field in her first career start.
Sophomore guard Yvonne Turner added 10 points, three assists and four steals in a strong effort as well, while sophomore center Nikki Bober poured in a season-high nine points along with her first career three-pointer to help fill the void left by first-team All-Big 12 forward Kelsey Griffin, who missed the first game of her NU career with a rib injury.
Overall, 10 Huskers found the scoring column including the first career points from freshman center Jessica Periago, who also hit her first career three-pointer for Nebraska.
Nebraska knocked down eight three-pointers for the second straight game, hitting 8-of-24 shots from beyond the arc with five different players connecting from long range.
The Huskers hit 52.6 percent (30-57) of their shots from the field and forced 20 turnovers by the 49ers. NU finished plus-five in the turnover category, while matching Long Beach State on the glass with 34 rebounds.
NU held the 49ers to just 39.7 percent (23-58) shooting from the field, including a dismal 7-for-28 in the first half.
Nebraska bolted out of the locker room to start the game, racing to a 21-2 lead in the first nine minutes. The Huskers shot out to the big lead despite playing without Griffin, who had her Big 12-leading streak of 74 straight starts snapped.
The Huskers led by as many as 26 points in the first half after a layup by Burke made it 37-11 Huskers with 3:39 left in the opening stanza. All 11 healthy Huskers played in the first half with nine finding the scoring column, led by eight points from Turner.
The Huskers hit 16-of-31 field goals in the half, including a pair of three-pointers. NU forced 14 Long Beach State turnovers, while committing only five turnovers of its own in the opening period.
Long Beach State changed the complexion of the game briefly in the second half, bolting out of the locker room on a 10-2 run and eventually trimming NU's margin to 12 points at 40-28 with 16:16 left.
In fact, the 49ers scored 16 second-half points in just six minutes, after scoring just 16 points in the opening 20 minutes of the game.
But Burke helped ignite the Huskers again with seven points in the next five minutes and Bober buried a three-pointer to help push NU's lead back to 24 points with 10:30 left in the game.
Tyresha Calhoun led all scorers with 17 points, including 15 in the second half, while LaTorya Barbee added 10 points for the 49ers.
The Huskers will take a week off from competition during Finals Week at the University of Nebraska, before traveling to Columbus, Ohio, to battle the Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday, Dec. 22. Tip-off at Value City Arena is set for 11 a.m. Central time with free live radio coverage on the Husker Sports Network and Huskers.com. A live video stream will also be available to premium subscribers on HuskersNside.
Nebraska Notes:
- Saturday's game marked the 500th game of Coach Connie Yori's career as a head coach.
- Kelsey Griffin did not start or play against Long Beach State on Saturday, snapping a streak of 74 consecutive starts to open her Husker career. Griffin's streak was the longest in the Big 12 Conference.
- Cory Montgomery earned the first start of her career and Nebraska featured a different starting lineup for the first time this season. In fact, Nebraska has had only five different starting lineups since the opening game of the 2005-06 season - a span of 75 games. Long Beach State had seven different starting lineups in the first eight games this season.
- Nebraska's 16 points allowed in the first half tied for the sixth fewest points allowed in an opening half in school history.
Official Basketball Box Score Official Basketball Box Score Nebraska vs Long Beach State 12/15/07 5:00 pm at Long Beach, Calif. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Nebraska 9-2, 0-0 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 40 MONTGOMERY, Cory.... f 5-7 1-1 2-2 1 4 5 2 13 1 0 0 0 23 52 PAGE, Danielle...... f 2-5 0-0 1-2 1 2 3 0 5 2 2 2 1 21 22 TURNER, Yvonne...... g 4-7 0-3 2-2 0 1 1 3 10 3 3 0 4 21 24 KELLEY, Dominique... g 2-5 2-4 0-0 0 1 1 3 6 4 1 0 0 21 32 HESTER, Tay......... g 3-6 0-2 0-0 0 2 2 2 6 2 3 0 2 28 05 BURKE, Kaitlyn...... 5-12 3-8 1-2 1 6 7 1 14 5 3 0 2 31 11 NEALS, Nicole....... 1-4 0-3 0-0 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 0 1 15 15 WHITTAKER, Monique.. 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 35 PERIAGO, Jessica.... 2-3 1-2 0-0 0 0 0 1 5 0 1 0 0 8 42 BOBER, Nikki........ 4-4 1-1 0-4 0 3 3 0 9 2 0 1 0 14 44 REDMON, Catheryn.... 2-4 0-0 1-2 1 5 6 4 5 0 2 0 1 15 TEAM................ 4 4 Totals.............. 30-57 8-24 7-14 5 29 34 16 75 20 15 3 11 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 16-31 51.6% 2nd Half: 14-26 53.8% Game: 52.6% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-10 20.0% 2nd Half: 6-14 42.9% Game: 33.3% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 4-10 40.0% 2nd Half: 3-4 75.0% Game: 50.0% 3
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Long Beach State 1-8, 0-0 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 22 Wade, Ally.......... f 0-3 0-1 0-0 0 5 5 0 0 5 1 0 0 21 23 O'Brien, Kaiti...... f 4-9 0-0 0-0 0 4 4 2 8 0 0 1 1 25 51 Bagley, Lauren...... c 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 2 0 0 1 0 0 8 02 Calhoun, Tyresha.... g 8-12 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 4 17 2 3 0 2 27 03 Sims, Lauren........ g 3-7 2-4 0-1 1 1 2 1 8 0 1 0 1 30 05 Williams, Lynea..... 1-4 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 2 0 3 0 0 5 11 Barbee, LaTorya..... 5-13 0-0 0-0 0 3 3 3 10 5 4 0 2 29 12 Bookman, Ashley..... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 8 25 Timmons, Brett...... 2-9 0-0 2-4 3 7 10 1 6 0 1 0 0 31 30 Lisnock, Melanie.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 32 Johnson, Nondi...... 0-0 0-0 1-2 1 2 3 1 1 0 1 0 0 7 55 Saucedo, Lakin...... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 8 TEAM................ 3 1 4 1 Totals.............. 23-58 3-6 3-7 8 26 34 15 52 12 20 1 9 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 7-25 28.0% 2nd Half: 16-33 48.5% Game: 39.7% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-3 33.3% 2nd Half: 2-3 66.7% Game: 50.0% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 1-3 33.3% 2nd Half: 2-4 50.0% Game: 42.9% 2
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Marianne Karp, Wendy Dailey, Carla Fujimoto Technical fouls: Nebraska-None. Long Beach State-None. Attendance: 794 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total Nebraska...................... 38 37 - 75 Long Beach State.............. 16 36 - 52