Columbus, Ohio - Danielle Page led three Huskers in double figures with 16 points and eight rebounds, but it was not enough to prevent the Nebraska women's basketball team from falling to No. 18 Ohio State, 86-74, at the Value City Arena on Saturday afternoon.
Tay Hester added a career-high 14 points and four assists, while Cory Montgomery pitched in 14 points and six rebounds, as Nebraska slipped to 9-3 on the season. The Buckeyes improved to 9-2 on the year.
Marscilla Packer, who was questionable with a left knee injury before the game, scored a game-high 23 points, including five three-pointers. She connected on a trio of three-pointers early in the second half to help the Buckeyes turn a 37-36 halftime lead into a nine-point advantage with 12 minutes left.
Jantel Lavender, who added 21 points and seven boards, scored 15 points in the opening period to carry the Buckeyes in the opening half.
Nebraska, which was playing its second straight game without injured first-team All-Big 12 forward Kelsey Griffin due to a rib injury, took its biggest lead of the first half after a pair of free throws by Montgomery to make it 25-18 with 7:35 in the opening period.
The Huskers, who were also without reserve guard Kala Kuhlmann because of a knee injury, led for nearly the entire first 18 minutes of the game, trailing only once at 10-9 before Lavender scored her 15th point of the first half to give the Buckeyes a 33-31 lead with just under two minutes left.
OSU took its biggest lead of the half on the next possession after a layup by Ashlee Trebilcock, before Kaitlyn Burke answered with her only three-pointer of the first half with 45 seconds left.
"I thought our effort was great but we didn't necessarily play smart defensively," Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said. "We were limited in some things we would normally do without Kelsey Griffin and Kala Kuhlmann, but that's not really an excuse. We need to execute better defensively. If you score 74 points, you need to win the game."
Despite trailing 37-34 with 22 seconds left after a pair of free throws by Trebilcock, the Huskers had a chance to take a lead to the locker room after single free throws by Page and Hester and a turnover by Ohio State, but Page was unable to get a clean look at the basket as time expired in the first half and the Buckeyes took a 37-36 lead into the locker room.
Nebraska forced a turnover on the opening possession of the second half and Page hit a jumper at the other end to give NU the lead back at 38-37 in the first 20 seconds of the second half. But Packer heated up by hitting a trio of three-pointers to shoot OSU to a 49-44 edge with 15:46 left.
Although NU kept scoring, OSU extended its lead to 11 points at 64-53 with 9:45 left. Nebraska refused to quit, as Montgomery buried a three-pointer and then hit a jumper to knock OSU's lead to 66-60 with 8:15 remaining.
After OSU pushed the lead back to 11 points at 71-60, NU trimmed the lead to five at 71-66 after a pair of Dominique Kelley free throws with 4:23 left in the game. But NU would not get any closer the rest of the way. Kelley finished the day with nine points and five rebounds in a strong performance.
Nebraska will take the next four days off for the holidays before returning to practice on Dec. 27. The Huskers will open a four-game home stand on Sunday, Dec. 30, when they battle Denver at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Tip-off is set for 2:05 p.m.
Official Basketball Box Score Official Basketball Box Score Nebraska vs Ohio State 12/22/07 12 p.m. at Value City Arena - Columbus, Ohio
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Nebraska 9-3 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 5-14 2-5 2-2 3 3 6 3 14 0 2 0 1 32 52 PAGE, Danielle...... c 7-20 1-1 1-3 5 3 8 4 16 1 4 2 0 27 22 TURNER, Yvonne...... g 3-6 2-4 0-0 0 3 3 2 8 3 4 0 2 23 24 KELLEY, Dominique... g 3-7 1-4 2-2 1 4 5 1 9 2 2 0 0 24 32 HESTER, Tay......... g 5-9 0-0 4-6 2 1 3 2 14 4 4 0 1 28 05 BURKE, Kaitlyn...... 2-4 2-4 0-0 2 0 2 3 6 3 4 0 1 32 11 NEALS, Nicole....... 1-2 1-2 0-0 0 1 1 0 3 2 1 0 0 12 42 BOBER, Nikki........ 2-3 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 2 4 2 0 1 0 13 44 REDMON, Catheryn.... 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 9 TEAM................ 5 1 6 Totals.............. 28-67 9-20 9-13 18 19 37 18 74 17 21 3 5 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 13-29 44.8% 2nd Half: 15-38 39.5% Game: 41.8% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-9 44.4% 2nd Half: 5-11 45.5% Game: 45.0% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 6-9 66.7% 2nd Half: 3-4 75.0% Game: 69.2% 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Ohio State 9-2 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 55 Allen, Star......... f 2-2 0-0 0-0 0 3 3 2 4 3 4 1 1 14 42 Lavender, Jantel.... c 9-19 0-0 3-4 2 5 7 3 21 1 5 1 0 33 00 Trebilcock, Ashlee.. g 2-8 0-2 2-2 0 4 4 2 6 5 3 0 3 34 20 Little, Shavelle.... g 1-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0 2 0 3 0 1 8 22 Packer, Marscilla... g 8-11 5-8 2-2 1 2 3 2 23 3 0 0 2 34 14 Moeller, Maria...... 3-6 0-1 2-2 0 5 5 0 8 5 3 0 0 36 32 Jamen, Alice........ 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 33 Mason-Cox, Lesslee.. 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 40 Johnson, Brittany... 2-4 0-0 1-1 0 0 0 0 5 0 1 0 0 8 45 Riley, Tamarah...... 5-8 0-0 3-4 3 3 6 3 13 2 1 0 1 23 51 Walker, Andrea...... 1-1 0-0 2-2 0 0 0 0 4 1 0 1 0 7 TEAM................ 3 2 5 Totals.............. 33-60 5-11 15-17 10 24 34 12 86 20 21 3 8 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 14-30 46.7% 2nd Half: 19-30 63.3% Game: 55.0% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-3 33.3% 2nd Half: 4-8 50.0% Game: 45.5% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 8-10 80.0% 2nd Half: 7-7 100 % Game: 88.2% 0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: June Courteau, Teresa Dahlem, Amy Bonner Technical fouls: Nebraska-None. Ohio State-None. Attendance: Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total Nebraska...................... 36 38 - 74 Ohio State.................... 37 49 - 86