Lincoln - Sophomore Cory Montgomery scored a game-high 17 points and freshman Dominique Kelley added 15 points and a career-high nine rebounds as the Nebraska women's basketball team cruised to a 73-38 win over Denver at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Sunday afternoon.
With the victory, Nebraska improved to 10-3 on the season while moving to 7-0 at the Devaney Center on the season. The Pioneers fell to 4-7 on the year. NU senior forward Danielle Page, a Colorado native, added 10 points, eight rebounds, three steals and a block to help the Huskers.
The big rebounding efforts from Kelley, Page and Montgomery, who also pulled down eight rebounds, helped the Huskers dominate the Pioneers on the boards. NU produced a plus-33 team rebounding margin (58-25), including 20 offensive boards against DU. Nebraska's advantage on the glass was its largest since outrebounding Wofford, 60-26, on Nov. 21, 2003, a span of 109 games.
Nebraska, which was playing its third straight game without first-team All-Big 12 forward Kelsey Griffin because of a rib injury, ran to an 18-point lead at halftime on the strength of an 18-0 run that took less than four minutes midway through the first half. Freshman guard Kaitlyn Burke started the run with a three-pointer that gave NU an 11-9 lead with 14:20 left. The Huskers then took control with a rare seven-point play, as Yvonne Turner got a steal and a layup before a steal by Tay Hester on DU's inbounds pass eventually led to a layup by Nikki Bober, who was fouled for a chance at a three-point play.
Bober missed the free throw with 12:53 left in the half, but Hester pulled down the offensive rebound, scored and was fouled, completing a three-point play to give NU an 18-9 lead with 12:52 left in the first period.
Hester kept the Huskers rolling with another basket just 12 seconds later, before Kelley added a basket to push NU's lead to 22-9. Hester finished with eight points, five rebounds, four steals and two assists in a strong all-around effort.
Page and Catheryn Redmon then completed the run with back-to-back baskets to give NU a 26-9 edge with 10:30 left in the half. Redmon finished with four points and six rebounds in 10 minutes off the bench to help the Huskers on the afternoon.
Denver did manage to close NU's lead to 12 points after a Sara Benham runner with about four minutes left, but the Huskers outscored the Pioneers outscored 8-2 in the final two minutes of the half to carry a 40-22 lead into the locker room. Benham led the Pioneers with 13 points on the afternoon, the only DU player to manage double figures.
The Huskers continued to extend the lead to open the second half, as Burke made a second-half start and promptly scored the first two points to give NU its first 20-point lead of the game. NU maintained that 20-point edge over the next eight minutes until surging again for another four-minute stretch.
A 12-1 run that started with a pair of Yvonne Turner free throws with 11:58 left and ended with a Kelley three-pointer gave NU a 58-27 lead with 8:15 left in the game. Denver answered Nebraska's run with an 11-2 run of its own over the next four minutes to trim the Huskers' edge to 22 points at 60-38 with 4:11 remaining in the game, but NU closed the game on a 13-0 run over the final 4:02 to produce the final margin.
Every Husker who dressed played at least one minute in the game, including freshman forward Jessica Periago, who hit a jumper to mark the second time in the last three games that she has found the scoring column. In all 10 Huskers found the scoring column, including Nicole Neals who knocked down a pair of three-pointers for the Huskers despite being slowed by an ankle sprain.
Nebraska concludes the non-conference portion of its schedule on Wednesday, when the Huskers play host to Arkansas-Pine Bluff at the Devaney Center. Tip-off is set for 7:05 p.m., with live radio coverage provided by the Husker Sports Network, including a free live audio broadcast on Huskers.com.
Official Basketball Box Score Official Basketball Box Score Denver vs Nebraska 12/30/07 2:06 p.m. at Bob Devaney Sports Center - Lincoln, NE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Denver (4-7) TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 33 Akotaobi, Nnenna.... f 1-9 0-2 2-2 1 3 4 1 4 0 0 0 4 30 52 Benham, Sara........ f 6-16 0-3 1-2 1 0 1 3 13 0 5 1 1 30 11 Meyer, Brooke....... g 1-7 0-2 0-0 0 2 2 1 2 4 1 0 0 25 12 Cole, Jenna......... g 0-4 0-2 0-0 0 2 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 17 13 Godette, Alisha..... g 2-5 1-1 4-4 1 4 5 4 9 0 4 0 0 26 04 Otero, Celena....... 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 0 2 1 1 0 4 13 05 Rice, Britteni...... 1-4 1-2 2-2 0 2 2 1 5 0 2 0 0 15 14 Kuiper, Salina...... 0-3 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 9 21 Robinson, Ashly..... 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 4 4 1 0 0 0 0 1 15 31 Mason, Andie........ 1-3 1-2 0-0 0 0 0 1 3 0 1 0 1 12 44 Leichliter, Abbey... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 5 54 Bents, Sara......... 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 TEAM................ 2 1 3 Totals.............. 13-55 3-14 9-11 6 19 25 14 38 5 18 1 12 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 9-32 28.1% 2nd Half: 4-23 17.4% Game: 23.6% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-11 18.2% 2nd Half: 1-3 33.3% Game: 21.4% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 2-2 100 % 2nd Half: 7-9 77.8% Game: 81.8% 0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Nebraska (10-3) TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 32 HESTER, Tay......... f 3-6 0-0 2-3 3 2 5 1 8 2 3 0 4 21 40 MONTGOMERY, Cory.... f 6-13 0-1 5-6 4 4 8 1 17 3 3 0 0 24 52 PAGE, Danielle...... c 5-11 0-0 0-0 2 6 8 0 10 0 4 1 3 28 22 TURNER, Yvonne...... g 1-4 0-3 2-2 3 3 6 3 4 2 4 1 2 17 24 KELLEY, Dominique... g 5-11 3-6 2-2 2 7 9 3 15 2 0 0 0 25 05 BURKE, Kaitlyn...... 2-8 1-5 0-0 0 2 2 1 5 3 2 0 0 19 11 NEALS, Nicole....... 2-3 2-3 0-0 0 2 2 0 6 0 1 0 1 18 13 KUHLMANN, Kala...... 0-2 0-0 0-0 1 3 4 1 0 3 3 0 0 18 15 WHITTAKER, Monique.. 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 35 PERIAGO, Jessica.... 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 3 42 BOBER, Nikki........ 1-1 0-0 0-1 2 2 4 1 2 2 2 1 0 16 44 REDMON, Catheryn.... 2-4 0-0 0-1 2 4 6 5 4 0 1 2 0 10 TEAM................ 1 3 4 Totals.............. 28-64 6-18 11-15 20 38 58 16 73 17 23 5 10 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 16-35 45.7% 2nd Half: 12-29 41.4% Game: 43.8% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-11 27.3% 2nd Half: 3-7 42.9% Game: 33.3% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 5-7 71.4% 2nd Half: 6-8 75.0% Game: 73.3% 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Daryl Humphrey, John Fullilove, Gina Cross Technical fouls: Denver-None. Nebraska-None. Attendance: 3398 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total Denver........................ 22 16 - 38 Nebraska...................... 40 33 - 73
Points in the paint-DEN 10,NU 34. Points off turnovers-DEN 14,NU 22. 2nd chance points-DEN 3,NU 15. Fast break points-DEN 2,NU 10. Bench points-DEN 10,NU 19. Score tied-2 times. Lead changed-2 times. Last FG-DEN 2nd-05:41, NU 2nd-00:29. Largest lead-DEN by 1 1st-15:34, NU by 35 2nd-00:29.