Waco, Texas - The Nebraska women's basketball team opened the game on a 16-6 run in the first four minutes, but No. 6 Baylor controlled the action the rest of the way, as the Lady Bears cruised to a 76-56 win at the Ferrell Center on Saturday night.
Nebraska slipped to 15-5 overall and 4-2 in Big 12 Conference play, while Baylor reeled off its 11th straight win and remained perfect at home on the season to improve to 18-1 on the year and 6-0 in the league.
Junior forward Kelsey Griffin led Nebraska with 12 points and eight points despite being strapped with foul trouble for most of the night. Tay Hester added a strong performance with 10 points and six rebounds before fouling out in the closing minutes. Griffin and Hester were two of many Huskers riddled with foul trouble against the Lady Bears, as NU was whistled for a season-high 24 fouls. In fact, four Huskers had four fouls with 11 minutes left in the second half.
But the foul trouble was not the biggest problem the Huskers had on the night, as a crisp running Baylor offense and a suffocating BU defense created a long night for Nebraska.
The Huskers bolted out of the locker room to score on 7-of-8 possessions to open the game, including a pair of three-pointers to lead 16-6 with 16:02 left. Although the Huskers hit five of their first six shots from the field to open the game, they went just 5-for-24 from the field the rest of the half and committed 12 first-half turnovers. BU overcame its slow start by going on a 20-2 run to take a 26-18 lead with 9:45 left.
Baylor continued to surge to end the first half and took a 43-31 lead into the locker room at halftime. The Lady Bears continued to press ahead in the second half, taking a 56-35 lead after a Jessica Morrow jumper with about 13 minutes left in the game.
The BU defense held the Huskers without a field goal for the first 7:30 of the second half, before Dominique Kelley hit a jumper to end the drought.
"I thought Baylor's post defense was outstanding tonight. Kelsey Griffin was 4-for-8 from the field, but Danielle Page went 0-for-6 and Cory Montgomery went just 1-for-6," Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said. "We've got a pretty good inside game, and that was the worst night we've had inside this season, and I think that was because Danielle Wilson, Rachel Allison and Jessika Bradley did such a good job inside."
Despite trailing, the Huskers refused to give in on the road, as Yvonne Turner hit a three and Kala Kuhlmann hit a pair of jumpers to cut BU's lead to 59-44. BU answered NU's run to push the lead back to 21 points, before Tay Hester sparked an NU surge over the next two minutes to slash the Lady Bear lead to 66-52 with 4:34 left.
Rachel Allison led four Lady Bears in double figures with 20 points and seven rebounds, while senior point guard Angela Tisdale added 17 points and four assists. Jessica Morrow pitched in 16 points and five boards, while sophomore center Danielle Wilson had 10 points, six rebounds, five blocks, three assists and three steals.
Yvonne Turner, Dominique Kelley and Kaitlyn Burke each managed seven points for the Huskers.
As a team, Nebraska hit just 32.7 percent (17-52) from the field for the night, including just 26.7 percent (4-15) from three-point range. The Huskers did hit 18-of-20 free throws, but were outrebounded 42-39, and committed 22 turnovers while forcing just 10 miscues by the Lady Bears.
Baylor managed 43.9 percent shooting from the field (29-66), including 3-of-9 three-pointers, while knocking down 15-of-25 free throws.
Nebraska returns home on Wednesday night to face its third straight top 25 opponent, when the Huskers clash with the No. 22 Kansas State Wildcats. Tip-off is set for 7:05 p.m. General admission tickets are available for as little as $5, while kids 6 and under free.
Official Basketball Box Score Official Basketball Box Score Nebraska vs Baylor Lady Bears 01/26/08 7:30 p.m. at Ferrell Center - Waco, Texas
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Nebraska 15-5 (4-2) 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 4-8 0-0 4-6 2 6 8 4 12 1 3 0 0 20 52 PAGE, Danielle...... f 0-6 0-1 2-2 0 8 8 2 2 1 3 1 1 24 22 TURNER, Yvonne...... g 2-5 1-3 2-2 2 2 4 4 7 1 4 1 1 20 24 KELLEY, Dominique... g 2-4 1-1 2-2 0 1 1 3 7 0 2 0 0 22 32 HESTER, Tay......... g 3-8 0-2 4-4 3 3 6 5 10 0 2 0 0 22 05 BURKE, Kaitlyn...... 2-6 1-3 2-2 1 1 2 2 7 2 2 0 0 26 11 NEALS, Nicole....... 0-4 0-3 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 13 13 KUHLMANN, Kala...... 2-2 0-0 2-2 0 1 1 2 6 1 0 0 1 15 15 WHITTAKER, Monique.. 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 40 MONTGOMERY, Cory.... 1-6 1-2 0-0 0 3 3 0 3 0 2 0 0 25 42 BOBER, Nikki........ 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 6 44 REDMON, Catheryn.... 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 2 2 0 1 0 0 5 TEAM................ 1 2 3 Totals.............. 17-52 4-15 18-20 9 30 39 24 56 7 22 2 3 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 10-30 33.3% 2nd Half: 7-22 31.8% Game: 32.7% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-7 42.9% 2nd Half: 1-8 12.5% Game: 26.7% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 8-8 100 % 2nd Half: 10-12 83.3% Game: 90.0% 0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Baylor Lady Bears 18-1 (6-0) #6 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 03 Morrow, Jessica..... f 6-10 1-2 3-3 3 2 5 1 16 2 1 2 2 35 14 Allison, Rachel..... f 8-16 1-2 3-4 2 5 7 4 20 1 1 0 2 29 11 Wilson, Danielle.... c 4-11 0-0 2-8 1 5 6 4 10 3 1 5 3 34 15 Player, Jhasmin..... g 2-8 0-1 2-4 2 3 5 3 6 1 1 0 1 24 20 Tisdale, Angela..... g 6-13 1-4 4-4 0 3 3 1 17 4 2 0 1 34 01 Bradley, Jessika.... 1-3 0-0 0-0 1 2 3 1 2 0 4 0 0 13 05 Jones, Melissa...... 2-3 0-0 1-2 3 5 8 2 5 0 0 1 1 21 21 Griffin, Kelli...... 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 22 Abbe, Haylee........ 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 44 Oberg, Kaitlin...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 TEAM................ 2 2 4 Totals.............. 29-66 3-9 15-25 14 28 42 16 76 11 10 8 10 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 15-35 42.9% 2nd Half: 14-31 45.2% Game: 43.9% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-6 33.3% 2nd Half: 1-3 33.3% Game: 33.3% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 11-15 73.3% 2nd Half: 4-10 40.0% Game: 60.0% 3
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Mary Day, Laura Morris, Metta Roberts Technical fouls: Nebraska-None. Baylor Lady Bears-None. Attendance: 7553 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total Nebraska...................... 31 25 - 56 Baylor Lady Bears............. 43 33 - 76 Fouled Out: NU: #32 Hester 2:03