Lincoln - Forwards Kelsey Griffin and Cory Montgomery produced their first double-doubles of the season to lead four Huskers in double figures, as the Nebraska women's basketball team ran to a 73-58 win over 2007 NCAA Tournament qualifier Robert Morris at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Sunday.
Griffin, a 6-2 junior from Eagle River, Alaska, produced team highs with 15 point, 12 rebounds and matched a career high with four assists to help the Huskers improve to 6-2 on the season and 5-0 at the Devaney Center.
Griffin hit 6-of-9 shots from the field and 3-of-4 free throws in a strong team effort by the Huskers. Sophomore forward Cory Montgomery added her first career double-double with 16 points and a career-high 11 rebounds, while senior forward Danielle Page added 14 points, six boards and also matched her career best with four assists of her own.
Nebraska's starting forward tandem of Griffin and Page combined for 29 points, 18 rebounds, eight assists, five steals and five blocked shots in just 48 total minutes, while Montgomery's impressive production off the bench came in just 22 minutes of work.
"That is a good win for our basketball team," Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said. "Robert Morris is an athletic team and they are going to win a lot of games in their conference. I thought our defense did a nice job of making adjustments and limiting what they wanted to do throughout the game."
Junior guard Tay Hester added 11 points and six boards in a strong effort. Hester also played excellent defense in limiting RMU's Sade Logan to 19 points on the afternoon. Although Logan led all scorers with 19, she entered the contest averaging nearly 27 points per contest, including back-to-back games with more than 30 points. Logan scored 10 of her 19 points in the game's final seven minutes, after the Huskers had built a 20-point lead. Chinata Nesbit added 17 points and 11 rebounds for RMU, but she and Logan combined to go just 16-of-44 from the field.
The Huskers, who led 33-30 at the half, never trailed in the game and maintained a 44-40 lead with 12:49 left, before Hester started a 14-0 NU run by draining a pair of free throws. Montgomery then hit back-to-back layups on spectacular assists from Griffin inside, as the Huskers took their first double-digit lead of the day.
Griffin then scored five straight points and had a pair of steals to push the lead to 15, before the Huskers got their only three-pointer of the night from Kaitlyn Burke to cap the run and take a 58-40 lead with 9:07 left.
NU put the Colonials away by pushing its lead to 22 points on two occasions in the game's final six minutes before settling for the 15-point win.
Nebraska won despite hitting just 33.3 percent of its field goal attempts in the first half by bouncing back to hit 51.9 percent of its attempts after halftime. For the game, NU hit 41.3 percent (26-63) of its attempts from the field, while knocking down a season-best 20-of-27 (74.1 percent) free throws. The Huskers also dominated the boards, outrebounding Robert Morris, 48-38.
RMU connected on just 37.9 percent (25-66) of its field goal attempts and just 5-of-11 free throws, as Nebraska outscored the Colonials at the line, 20-5.
The Huskers complete their three-game home stand by playing host to USC on Saturday, Dec. 8, at 7:05 p.m. The game will be carried live on the Husker Sports Network, including 98.1 KFGE in Lincoln and for free on Huskers.com.
Official Basketball Box Score Official Basketball Box Score Robert Morris vs Nebraska 12/02/07 5:00 PM at Devaney Sports Center (Lincoln, NE)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Robert Morris (2-4) TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 01 Nesbit, Chinata..... f 8-21 0-0 1-4 2 9 11 1 17 3 3 0 3 36 02 McMillion, Tiffany.. c 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 03 Logan, Sade......... g 8-23 1-7 2-2 2 3 5 4 19 1 3 1 3 38 21 Williams, Kendra.... g 2-7 1-3 0-0 0 2 2 2 5 2 5 0 1 35 33 Butler, Psyche...... g 2-5 0-0 0-2 2 2 4 3 4 0 2 0 1 27 04 Pace, Angela........ 3-5 1-1 2-3 1 5 6 1 9 5 3 0 3 30 12 Cunningham, Shakeena 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 3 0 0 1 0 0 5 20 Williams, Grace..... 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 1 3 2 2 0 0 2 0 10 22 Dukes, Brittany..... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 42 Ike, Joy............ 1-3 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 2 2 0 1 1 0 15 TEAM................ 4 1 5 Totals.............. 25-66 3-11 5-11 14 24 38 20 58 11 19 4 12 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 14-37 37.8% 2nd Half: 11-29 37.9% Game: 37.9% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-5 40.0% 2nd Half: 1-6 16.7% Game: 27.3% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 0-2 0.0% 2nd Half: 5-9 55.6% Game: 45.5% 3
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Nebraska (6-2) 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 6-9 0-0 3-4 6 6 12 1 15 4 0 2 4 17 52 PAGE, Danielle...... f 4-11 0-0 6-6 3 3 6 0 14 4 2 3 1 31 22 TURNER, Yvonne...... g 2-7 0-2 0-0 0 2 2 0 4 1 3 0 2 25 24 KELLEY, Dominique... g 0-3 0-2 3-4 2 1 3 1 3 1 1 0 1 21 32 HESTER, Tay......... g 4-9 0-0 3-6 1 5 6 3 11 0 3 1 1 20 05 BURKE, Kaitlyn...... 2-4 1-2 0-0 0 1 1 4 5 2 3 0 1 26 11 NEALS, Nicole....... 1-2 0-1 0-1 0 0 0 3 2 1 0 0 0 10 13 KUHLMANN, Kala...... 0-3 0-0 3-4 1 1 2 0 3 0 1 0 0 19 15 WHITTAKER, Monique.. 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 40 MONTGOMERY, Cory.... 7-12 0-0 2-2 3 8 11 0 16 0 4 0 1 22 42 BOBER, Nikki........ 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 44 REDMON, Catheryn.... 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 6 TEAM................ 2 3 5 Totals.............. 26-63 1-7 20-27 18 30 48 13 73 13 20 6 11 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-36 33.3% 2nd Half: 14-27 51.9% Game: 41.3% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 0-4 0.0% 2nd Half: 1-3 33.3% Game: 14.3% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 9-11 81.8% 2nd Half: 11-16 68.8% Game: 74.1% 2
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Scotty Hermann, Felicia Grinter, Doug Miller Technical fouls: Robert Morris-None. Nebraska-None. Attendance: 1869 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total Robert Morris................. 30 28 - 58 Nebraska...................... 33 40 - 73
Points in the paint-RM 34,NU 36. Points off turnovers-RM 19,NU 21. 2nd chance points-RM 15,NU 24. Fast break points-RM 12,NU 6. Bench points-RM 13,NU 26. Score tied-1 time. Lead changed-0 times. Last FG-RM 2nd-00:00, NU 2nd-00:20. Largest lead-RM None, NU by 22 2nd-05:30.