Lincoln - Kelsey Griffin scored a season-high 26 points and Danielle Page added her fourth career double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds as the Nebraska women's basketball team rolled to a season sweep over Missouri with a 73-57 win at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Thursday night.
With the victory, Nebraska improved to 18-8 overall and 7-5 in the Big 12 while posting its first season sweep of the Tigers since 2000. The Huskers also snapped a seven-game home losing streak against the Tigers to improve to 12-2 on the year at the Devaney Center. Missouri slipped to 8-17 overall and 1-11 in the Big 12 with its first loss in Lincoln since 2000. Alyssa Hollins led the Tigers with 22 points and six rebounds.
Griffin, a 6-2 junior forward from Eagle River, Alaska, scored a season-high 26 points and pulled down eight rebounds to lead the Huskers. She also became just the eighth player in Nebraska history to reach the 1,200-point and 600-rebound mark in her career. Page notched her fifth 20-point scoring effort of the season while grabbing double-figure rebounds for the third time this season.
Sophomore guard Yvonne Turner added nine points and six rebounds on a perfect 4-for-4 shooting night from the field, including a three-pointer. Freshman Dominique Kelley also contributed a solid effort for the Huskers, adding seven points, three rebounds and three assists.
The Huskers led from nearly start to finish, building a 20-point lead at 69-49 with five minutes left in the contest. Nebraska was able to rest Page and Griffin in the last five minutes of the game, as Nebraska's big two inside combined for 46 points and 20 rebounds in just 48 total minutes.
"That was our biggest win of the year," Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said. "I know a lot of people might not understand or believe that, but its true. We needed to come out and play a complete game tonight and we did that. We still have a lot of things we can improve on, but it was nice to set the tone with our defense and dictate the game for a change. We have not done that for a couple weeks."
Nebraska finished the night shooting 45.6 percent (26-57) from the field, including 2-of-8 three-pointers. The Huskers also connected on 19-of-23 free throws, just days after going 17-of-34 at the line in a one-point loss at Kansas.
But Nebraska's best effort of the night may have come on the glass, where the Huskers posted a plus-21 rebound margin, pulling down 46 boards, including 14 on the offensive end. NU held the Tigers to just 25 rebounds, including six offensive boards. The Huskers also outscored MU, 19-3 at the foul line.
Nebraska worked its way to a 33-27 halftime lead thanks to 10 points and eight rebounds from Page and eight points and four boards from Griffin. The Huskers held a six-point edge despite Missouri hitting 7-of-10 three-pointers in the first half. Hollins led the Tigers with 14 first-half points, including 4-of-6 shooting from long range. However, Hollins hit just 5-of-14 shots overall in the half, and no other Tiger scored more than five first-half points.
While the Tigers were hot from outside, they hit just 3-of-19 shots from inside the arc, shooting just 34.5 percent from the field overall. Nebraska hit just 41.9 percent of its shots from the field in the first half, but controlled the boards 24-15, on its way to a six-point halftime edge.
The Huskers wasted little time setting the tone in the second half, scoring on their first five possessions to push the lead to 43-31 with 17:56 left. Missouri was never able to pull within single digits again, as Griffin, Page and Turner powered a big second-half effort. Griffin scored 18 of her game-high 26 in 11 second-half minutes, while Page added 10 points after intermission.
Nebraska returns to Big 12 road action on Sunday when the Huskers travel to Lubbock to take on Texas Tech. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. with free live audio on Huskers.com provided by the Husker Sports Network.
Official Basketball Box Score Official Basketball Box Score Missouri vs Nebraska 02/21/08 7:05 p.m. at Bob Devaney Sports Center - Lincoln, NE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Missouri 8-17, 1-11 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 04 Johnson, Jessra..... f 4-11 2-2 0-0 1 4 5 4 10 2 5 0 0 28 32 Scott, Marissa...... f 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 2 19 44 Jones, Shakara...... f 4-7 0-0 1-2 1 1 2 4 9 0 0 0 2 24 11 Richbow, Toy........ g 1-5 0-1 0-0 0 2 2 2 2 6 1 0 1 31 12 Hollins, Alyssa..... g 9-22 4-7 0-0 2 4 6 3 22 2 3 0 1 34 03 Hanneman, Amanda.... 3-6 1-2 0-0 1 1 2 0 7 1 0 0 0 15 10 Otote, Jasmyn....... 1-4 1-2 2-3 1 0 1 1 5 0 0 0 0 14 20 Pickens, K-Kay...... 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 3 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 12 23 Brown, RaeShara..... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 9 25 Wilson, Nicole...... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 3 0 0 2 0 0 14 Team................ 3 3 Totals.............. 23-60 8-14 3-5 6 19 25 20 57 12 12 0 6 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 10-29 34.5% 2nd Half: 13-31 41.9% Game: 38.3% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 7-10 70.0% 2nd Half: 1-4 25.0% Game: 57.1% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 0-0 0.0% 2nd Half: 3-5 60.0% Game: 60.0% 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Nebraska 18-8, 7-5 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 9-13 0-0 8-9 1 7 8 0 26 2 2 1 1 24 52 PAGE, Danielle...... f 6-14 1-1 7-8 5 7 12 2 20 1 5 1 2 24 22 TURNER, Yvonne...... g 4-4 1-1 0-0 3 3 6 0 9 2 1 0 2 25 24 KELLEY, Dominique... g 3-5 0-0 1-2 0 3 3 2 7 3 0 0 1 21 32 HESTER, Tay......... g 1-4 0-1 1-2 0 5 5 1 3 1 2 0 0 21 05 BURKE, Kaitlyn...... 2-7 0-3 0-0 0 0 0 1 4 0 0 1 1 21 11 NEALS, Nicole....... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 14 13 KUHLMANN, Kala...... 0-2 0-1 0-0 2 3 5 0 0 1 1 0 0 19 15 WHITTAKER, Monique.. 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0+ 35 PERIAGO, Jessica.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0+ 40 MONTGOMERY, Cory.... 1-5 0-1 0-0 1 2 3 3 2 0 0 1 0 23 42 BOBER, Nikki........ 0-2 0-0 2-2 1 1 2 0 2 1 2 0 0 8 44 REDMON, Catheryn.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0+ TEAM................ 1 1 2 Totals.............. 26-57 2-8 19-23 14 32 46 9 73 11 14 4 7 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 13-31 41.9% 2nd Half: 13-26 50.0% Game: 45.6% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-3 33.3% 2nd Half: 1-5 20.0% Game: 25.0% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 6-8 75.0% 2nd Half: 13-15 86.7% Game: 82.6% 2
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Scotty Hermann, Barry Roberts, Amy Bonner Technical fouls: Missouri-None. Nebraska-None. Attendance: 5085 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total Missouri...................... 27 30 - 57 Nebraska...................... 33 40 - 73