Norman, Okla. - Yvonne Turner scored a career-high 18 points, including a trio of three-pointers, but it wasn't enough to help the Nebraska women's basketball team stop No. 11 Oklahoma in an 80-72 loss to the Sooners at the Lloyd Noble Center on Wednesday night.
Nebraska slipped to 13-4 overall and 2-1 in the Big 12 with its first conference loss, while OU improved to 11-3 on the season and 2-1 in the league in the Sooners' Big 12 home opener.
Although the final margin swung in OU's favor, the Huskers were in a dogfight with the Sooners through the first 28 minutes. After tying the game on three occassions in the second half, Nebraska trailed just 49-48 following Dominique Kelley's running jumper with 11:42 remaining in the game.
But the Sooners erupted on a quick 7-0 run over the next two minutes to regain control of the game. After a jumper by Tay Hester stopped the run and cut the OU lead to 56-50 with 9:40 left, the Sooners went on a 10-0 run over the next three minutes to give OU a 66-50 edge with seven minutes left.
In addition to the career-high 18 points from Turner, senior forward Danielle Page added 12 points and six rebounds, while Hester and Cory Montgomery each managed 10 points for NU. Kelsey Griffin scored all seven of her points in the second half.
Danielle Robinson led the Sooners with 22 points, while Courtney Paris added her 75th consecutive double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Amanda Thompson (15) and Jenna Plumley (11) added double figures for OU.
Turner got the Huskers off to a strong start by scoring a career-high 13 points in the first half alone, despite being strapped with two early fouls. Turner was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field, including a pair of three-pointers, while hitting 2-of-3 first-half free throws.
Turner scored five points in the first two minutes to give NU a 7-5 lead before OU erupted on a 16-2 surge to take control of the game at 21-9 with just over 10 minutes left in the half.
Page then sparked the Huskers with a pair of jumpers and Turner's second three-pointer of the game pulled NU within 23-18 with 7:40 left. Turner kept the Huskers rolling with three more points on back-to-back possessions to draw NU to 23-21 with 6:57 left.
Oklahoma managed to push the lead back to eight points at 38-30 after four straight points from Robinson, but Nebraska carried momentum to the locker room after Nicole Neals buried a pair of three-pointers in the final minute to pull the Huskers to 38-36 at halftime.
Nebraska hit 43 percent of its field goals for the game, compared to 44 percent shooting for OU. The Huskers hit 6-of-17 three-pointers and 16-of-23 free throws, while OU managed 3-of-9 three-point shooting while hitting 19-of-20 free throws. OU outrebounded NU, 41-34, while the Sooners also won the turnover battle by forcing 25 miscues by the Huskers. OU committed 21 turnovers of its own.
Nebraska will continue Big 12 Conference road action by traveling to Ames, Iowa to battle Iowa State on Saturday. Tip-off with the Cyclones is set for 7 p.m. Live radio coverage will be provided the Husker Sports Network, while live premium video will be available on Huskers.com through HuskersNside.
Official Basketball Box Score Official Basketball Box Score Nebraska vs Oklahoma 1/16/08 7:08 p.m. at Lloyd Noble Center, Norman, Okla.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Nebraska 13-4, 2-1 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 2-9 0-0 3-5 2 4 6 2 7 0 3 1 1 29 52 PAGE, Danielle...... f 5-13 0-0 2-2 3 3 6 4 12 0 2 1 1 30 22 TURNER, Yvonne...... g 5-7 3-5 5-6 0 0 0 4 18 1 2 0 1 22 24 KELLEY, Dominique... g 2-5 0-1 0-0 1 2 3 3 4 4 2 0 1 23 32 HESTER, Tay......... g 5-8 0-1 0-1 1 4 5 4 10 2 7 0 2 23 05 BURKE, Kaitlyn...... 0-4 0-3 2-2 0 0 0 2 2 1 3 0 1 22 11 NEALS, Nicole....... 2-5 2-5 0-1 0 0 0 0 6 1 2 0 1 13 13 KUHLMANN, Kala...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 2 0 0 4 0 0 15 40 MONTGOMERY, Cory.... 4-7 1-2 1-2 3 5 8 0 10 0 0 0 1 17 42 BOBER, Nikki........ 0-0 0-0 1-2 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 5 44 REDMON, Catheryn.... 0-0 0-0 2-2 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 0 0 1 TEAM................ 1 1 2 Totals.............. 25-58 6-17 16-23 12 22 34 22 72 11 25 2 9 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 13-30 43.3% 2nd Half: 12-28 42.9% Game: 43.1% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-10 40.0% 2nd Half: 2-7 28.6% Game: 35.3% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 6-9 66.7% 2nd Half: 10-14 71.4% Game: 69.6% 3
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Oklahoma 11-3, 2-1 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 05 Paris,Ashley........ f 3-7 0-0 0-0 3 4 7 4 6 0 3 0 0 26 21 Thompson,Amanda..... f 5-13 0-0 5-5 4 3 7 2 15 3 7 2 8 36 03 Paris,Courtney...... c 7-13 0-0 2-3 4 7 11 4 16 1 1 3 1 32 11 Plumley,Jenna....... g 3-5 3-5 2-2 0 3 3 2 11 5 1 0 2 37 13 Robinson,Danielle... g 9-16 0-0 4-4 1 6 7 4 22 4 3 0 5 37 01 Stevenson,Nyeshia... 2-8 0-2 2-2 2 1 3 1 6 1 3 0 0 14 02 Vining,Jenny........ 0-2 0-2 2-2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 3 10 Roethlisberger,C.... 0-2 0-0 2-2 0 1 1 2 2 1 3 0 2 14 15 Winchester,Carolyn.. 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 TEAM................ 2 2 Totals.............. 29-66 3-9 19-20 16 25 41 19 80 15 21 5 18 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 17-39 43.6% 2nd Half: 12-27 44.4% Game: 43.9% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-5 20.0% 2nd Half: 2-4 50.0% Game: 33.3% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 3-4 75.0% 2nd Half: 16-16 100 % Game: 95.0% 0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Scott Yarborough, Tina Napier, Gator Parrish Technical fouls: Nebraska-None. Oklahoma-None. Attendance: 8099 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total Nebraska...................... 36 36 - 72 Oklahoma...................... 38 42 - 80 Estimated Attendance: 5,486