Huskers Face No. 1 Maryland in NCAA Second Round

No. 8 Nebraska (21-11, 9-7 Big 12)
vs. No. 1 Maryland (31-3, 13-1 ACC)

Comcast Center (17,950) ? College Park, Md.
Tuesday, March 25 ? 8:30 p.m. Central

Television: ESPN2/ESPN360.com
Radio: Husker Sports Network
(98.1 FM-KFGE, 1110 AM-KFAB, 880 AM-KRVN)
Live Internet Audio: Huskers.com (free)

No. 8 Huskers Face No. 1 Maryland in NCAA Second Round
Fresh off its first NCAA Tournament win since 1998, the Nebraska women’s basketball team advances to the second round to face top-seeded Maryland on the Terrapins’ homecourt at the Comcast Center on Tuesday, March 25.

Tip-off between the Huskers (21-11) and the ACC power Terrapins (31-3) is set for 8:30 p.m. Central time, with live national television coverage on ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN360.com with Pam Ward, Nancy Lieberman and Holly Rowe on the call. Live radio coverage will be provided by the 24-state Husker Sports Network, including a free audio broadcast on Huskers.com with Matt Coatney and Jeff Griesch on the call.

The Huskers will be making their third-ever trip to the NCAA second round after a 61-58 win over ninth-seeded Xavier on Sunday at the Comcast Center. Nebraska never trailed in the game and led by as many as 15 points in the second half before holding on for the win.

Two-time first-team All-Big 12 forward Kelsey Griffin produced an All-America-caliber performance with a game-high 26 points. Griffin tied her season high and produced her 15th straight double-figure scoring effort with her sixth 20-plus scoring performance in the last 11 games. Over the last 12 games, Griffin is averaging 19.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per contest.

Griffin’s 26 points tied for the second-highest point total ever by a Husker in an NCAA Tournament game, matching Nafeesah Brown’s 26 points in NU’s first-ever NCAA Tournament win over San Diego in 1993, and trailing the 32 points scored by Nicole Kubik against Kentucky in 1999.

Griffin’s big performance, along with Tay Hester’s 13 points and Cory Montgomery’s 12 points and five rebounds off the bench, earned Nebraska its third-ever NCAA Tournament win, joining a 1998 win over New Mexico in Norfolk, Va., and a 1993 win over San Diego in Lincoln.

Scouting The Maryland Terrapins
Maryland earned its fifth consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament’s second round with an 80-66 win over 16th-seeded Coppin State in Sunday’s first round at the Comcast Center. The win was Coach Brenda Frese’s 200th of her career. The win improved the Terrapins to 20-0 at home this season and 8-2 all-time at home in the NCAA Tournament.

All-American and ACC Player-of-the-Year Crystal Langhorne led the Terps with 25 points and 12 rebounds in the opening-round win for her 58th career double-double. Langhorne, who is averaging 17.0 points and 9.3 boards per game on the year, is the school’s all-time scoring and rebounding leader with 2,188 points and 1,200 boards.

Junior Marissa Coleman, a 6-1 junior forward who is averaging 15.9 points and 7.7 boards per game, added 17 points in the win over Coppin State, while 6-4 senior center Laura Harper added 14 points in the win.

Harper, who was the Most Outstanding Player in the 2006 NCAA Final Four, joined Langhorne, Coleman and junior guard Kristi Toliver in forming the nucleus of the Terrapins’ 2006 national championship team. Toliver, who joined Harper on the 2006 NCAA All-Final Four Team, gives Maryland four players averaging in double figures with 16.7 points and 3.3 boards per game, while adding a staggering 7.5 assists per game. Toliver, who also leads the Terps with 74 three-pointers on the year, owns 561 career assists to rank among the top 10 in ACC history.

Toliver and freshman guard Marah Strickland, who rounds out the starting lineup by averaging 8.5 points and 3.2 rebounds per game, have combined for 127 three-pointers on the year, just eight shy of Nebraska’s team total of 135.

Maryland, who enters the second round with a 31-3 overall record after posting a 13-1 ACC mark, lost only to NCAA No. 1 seed North Carolina, No. 2 seed Rutgers and No. 3 seed Duke during the regular season. The Terrapins, who entered the NCAA Tournament ranked fifth nationally in the Associated Press Poll, have been dominant throughout the season. The Terps have outscored the opposition by an average of 18 points per game (82.1-64.1) while outrebounding their foes by an average of 11.2 boards per game.

The best shooting team in the country, Maryland shoots a scorching 49.5 percent from the field as a team, including a sizzling 38.5 percent from three-point range. The Terrapins are also an outstanding free throw shooting team, hitting 74.8 percent of their attempts from the stripe on the year.

The Terrapin defense has held opponents to just 38.4 percent shooting from the field, including a dismal 28.4 percent success rate from three-point range. Opponents have also struggled at the line, hitting just 64.9 percent of their free throw attempts.

Nebraska vs. Maryland Series History
Nebraska has never faced Maryland in women’s basketball. The Huskers’ closest connection to the Terrapins may be former NU assistant coach Jeff Walz, who is now the head coach at Louisville. Walz, who was an assistant at Nebraska under Paul Sanderford from 1997 to 2001, was an assistant under Maryland Coach Brenda Frese from 2001 to 2007, first for one season at Minnesota before spending the last five years at Maryland.

Walz, who called the winning play from the bench in Maryland’s 2006 national championship game victory, also led his Louisville club against College Park participants Xavier and Coppin State this season.

Nebraska’s NCAA Tournament History
The Huskers are making their eighth NCAA Tournament appearance in school history, joining trips in 1988, 1993, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2007. NU, which is making its third straight trip to an Atlantic Coast Conference host site, is 3-7 all-time in the Big Dance.

Nebraska produced its third win in NCAA Tournament history with its 61-58 win over Atlantic-10 Conference Tournament champion Xavier on Sunday. The Huskers’ last win had come against New Mexico (76-59) on March 13, 1998 in Norfolk, Va. Nebraska earned its first NCAA Tournament victory against San Diego (81-58) on March 17, 1993, at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln.

Nebraska made its first NCAA Tournament appearance on March 19, 1988, when the Huskers dropped a 100-82 decision to USC in Los Angeles. NU was also knocked out of the 1993 NCAA Tournament in the second round in Los Angeles with a 78-60 loss at USC. In 1996, the Huskers fell in the first round to Colorado State at Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto, Calif.

In 1999, the Huskers were knocked out in the NCAA first round by Kentucky (98-92) at Pauley Pavilion on UCLA’s campus in Los Angeles. Along with Nebraska’s four California losses, the Huskers have lost a pair of NCAA Tournament games in the state of Virginia, including a 75-60 loss at Old Dominion on March 15, 1998, and a 93-76 loss to Boston College on March 17, 2000, in Charlottesville, Va.

Last year, the Huskers suffered a narrow 64-61 loss to Temple in Raleigh, N.C., on March 18, 2007.

Big 12 Conference Rolling in Postseason Play
The Big 12 Conference ranked as the nation’s strongest league throughout the 2007-08 season and the postseason tournament fields have given the league a chance to verify that ranking.

Eleven of the Big 12 schools advanced to postseason play, including eight teams in the NCAA Tournament. League schools went a perfect 8-0 in the first round, including wins by Nebraska, Texas A&M, Baylor, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Kansas State, Iowa State and Texas, marking the first time in history a league went 8-0.

All eight of the Big 12 teams earned No. 8 seeds or higher in the 64-team NCAA Tournament field.

In addition to those eight Big 12 schools, which all posted 20 or more wins on the season, three more Big 12 teams (Colorado, Kansas, Texas Tech) earned bids to the 2008 Women’s National Invitation Tournament. All three of those schools also earned opening-round byes in the 48-team tournament.

Texas Tech has advanced to the round of 16 in the WNIT with a 33-point over Texas State on Saturday in Lubbock, while Kansas and Colorado will host their first games of the tournament on Monday night.

Nebraska Against the 2008 NCAA Tournament Field
Nebraska played one of the toughest schedules in school history in 2008, facing a 32-game schedule that ranked No. 24 nationally according to CollegeRPI.com’s rankings through its regular-season games.

The Huskers’ game against No. 1 seed Maryland will mark their 16th game this season against a 2008 NCAA Tournament qualifier.

Adding its first-round tournament win over Xavier, the Huskers have played 15 games against 2008 NCAA Tournament teams, including a 73-60 win over No. 2 seed and Big 12 Tournament champion Texas A&M, two double-digit wins over No. 7 Iowa State, and an 11-point victory over No. 8 seed Texas.

In non-conference play, the Huskers added a seven-point win over No. 7 seed UTEP to open the season, while running to a 15-point win over Northeast Conference champion and automatic qualifier Robert Morris, which earned a No. 15 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Nebraska is 7-8 against the tournament field with losses to No. 3 Baylor, No. 3 Oklahoma State, No. 4 Oklahoma, two last-second losses to No. 5 Kansas State, No. 6 Ohio State, No. 7 Marist and No. 8 Utah.

Add Maryland to the List of NU’s 20-Win Opponents
Maryland (31-3) will become Nebraska’s 15th opponent this year to reach the 20-win plateau, joining Marist (32-2), UTEP (28-3), Utah (27-5), Texas A&M (27-7), Oklahoma State (26-7), Baylor (25-6), Robert Morris (23-10), Oklahoma (22-8), Kansas State (22-9), Ohio State (22-9), Texas (22-12), Iowa State (21-12) and Creighton (21-11).

The Huskers will be playing their 17th game against a 20-win team when they face the Terrapins in the NCAA Tournament second round. Nebraska owns an 8-8 record against 20-win teams this season.

10 NCAA Second Round Games to Involve Husker Foes
Nebraska certainly provided plenty of bumps in the road to the national title in 2008. In fact, 10 of the 16 second-round games in the NCAA Tournament will involve Husker opponents on Monday and Tuesday. Not only did all seven of the Huskers’ Big 12 brethren advance to the second round, but Conference USA champion UTEP rolled to a 32-point win over Western Kentucky and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion Marist posted a 19-point win over DePaul. The Red Foxes will face LSU in Baton Rouge, while UTEP will take on top-seeded Stanford in Palo Alto on Monday night.

Texas A&M will face Hartford, while Oklahoma State will tangle with Florida State. Baylor will battle Pittsburgh, while Iowa State will take on second-seeded Rutgers in Des Moines. On Tuesday, Nebraska will face top-seeded Maryland, while Texas will take on No. 1 seed Connecticut. Kansas State will square off with Louisville, while Oklahoma will tangle with Notre Dame.

The nation’s top two conferences in the regular season, the Big 12 will go head-to-head with the Big East in five second-round matchups. The Big East owns the higher seed in three of the five games.

Nebraska NCAA Tournament Second Round Notes

• Kelsey Griffin’s 26 points in the first in the first round tied for the second-best individual game scoring total by a Husker in NCAA Tournament history. Griffin pushed her NCAA Tournament career total to 37 points, which ranks fifth in Husker history. She needs just two points to move ahead of two-time WNBA All-Star Anna DeForge and former Husker Nafeesah Brown (38) on the NU NCAA scoring list. Nicole Kubik owns Nebraska’s career tournament scoring record with 81 points over four games in 1998, 1999 and 2000.
• Griffin ranks 11th all-time at Nebraska with 1,339 points and ninth at NU with 658 career rebounds. She needs just one more board to match Charlie Rogers (1997-2000) in eighth on the Huskers' boards chart and just three more rebounds to catch Angie Miller (1984-87) in seventh place.
• Danielle Page tied her own Nebraska NCAA Tournament game record with five blocked shots in the Huskers’ opening-round win over Xavier. Page, who had 19 members of her family in attendance at the game, has 10 blocks in two career NCAA games, including five in the 2007 tournament against Temple. The previous NU career tournament record was three set by Rissa Taylor in two games in 1993.
• To put Page’s NCAA Tournament block totals in perspective, the 6-2 forward has 10 blocks in two career NCAA Tournament games, while Maryland’s 6-4 center Laura Harper owns nine blocks in nine career NCAA Tournament games. Harper was the Most Outstanding Player in the 2006 NCAA Final Four.
• Page increased her school single-season record to 76 blocks, while pushing her career total to 205 - the second-best all-time mark in Husker history. A first-year starter, Page also owns 942 points and 631 rebounds in her career.
• Page owns 18 career rebounds in the NCAA Tournament and needs eight more to tie the NU career record for rebounds in the NCAA Tournament held by two-time WNBA All-Star Anna DeForge with 26 in three games in 1996 and 1998.
• Husker freshman guard Kaitlyn Burke dished out five assists off the bench in the opening-round win over Xavier, which ties for fourth on Nebraska’s NCAA Tournament chart.
• Tay Hester produced her eighth double-figure scoring effort of the season with 13 points in the Nebraska’s first-round win over Xavier. It was Hester’s first double-figure performance since scoring 10 points in a loss at No. 6 Baylor on Jan. 26, and her highest total since scoring a career-high 14 points at No. 18 Ohio State on Dec. 22. Hester opened the season with back-to-back 13-point efforts in wins over UTEP and Ole Miss.
• Cory Montgomery added double figures with 12 points against Xavier, giving her 15 double-digit efforts on the year. It was her first double-figure performance since scoring 18 against No. 17 Oklahoma State on Feb. 10, and just her second since scoring a career-high 21 at Iowa State on Jan. 19. Montgomery has scored in double figures against 11 of NU’s 15 non-conference opponents this season.
• Six of the 13 players on Nebraska’s 2007-08 roster played in the first NCAA Tournament game of their careers in Sunday’s first-round win over Xavier. In addition to Husker freshmen Dominique Kelley and Kaitlyn Burke, sophomores Nikki Bober, Kala Kuhlmann and Nicole Neals made their first-ever appearances in the Big Dance. Junior college transfer Tay Hester also played in her first career postseason tournament game. Freshmen Catheryn Redmon, Jessica Periago and Monique Whittaker did not play against the Musketeers.
• Nebraska’s cumulative NCAA Tournament experience is 14 games, including two games from Kelsey Griffin, Danielle Page, Yvonne Turner and Cory Montgomery. Maryland’s roster includes players who have competed in a combined 64 NCAA Tournaments games, including six players who have competed in at least nine NCAA games.
• The Huskers will be playing their 33rd game of the season on Tuesday, the most by a Nebraska team since playing 33 games in 1998-99. NU finished that season with a 21-12 record.
• Nebraska’s March 25 game against Maryland will be the latest the Huskers have played on the calendar since taking on Arkansas State on March 28, 1992 in the third round of the National Women’s Invitational Tournament.
• The Huskers’ game with Maryland will be just NU’s third game against an ACC opponent since 1996. Nebraska rolled to a 94-74 win over NC State on Dec. 28, 2006, at the State Farm Classic in Gainesville. The Huskers fell to the Wolfpack, 55-45, at the Paradise Jam in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, on Nov. 26, 2004. Prior to that game, NU had not faced an active member of the ACC since defeating North Carolina, 81-75, in Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Dec. 20, 1995.
• Nebraska is 3-5 all-time against current members of the ACC.