Lincoln - Sophomore Catheryn Redmon led five Huskers in double figures with 16 points and nine rebounds, as Nebraska opened the 2008-09 exhibition season with a 102-30 women's basketball win over Chadron State on Halloween night at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
Redmon, a 6-3 forward from Grand Prairie, Texas, hit 8-of-11shots from the field and nearly produced a double-double in just 13 minutes of action off the bench.
Junior forward Cory Montgomery added 13 points and seven boards in 18 minutes as a starter inside for the Huskers, while junior center Nikki Bober contributed 11 points, two rebounds and two assists in the first start of her NU career.
Freshman forward Harleen Sidhu gave the Huskers four interior players in double figures with 10 points, eight rebounds, an assist and a steal in just 13 minutes off the bench in her first collegiate game. Sidhu's three-pointer with 47 seconds left put the Huskers over the century mark to cap the scoring.
Playing without two-time first-team All-Big 12 forward Kelsey Griffin, who sat out with an ankle injury, Nebraska jumped out to a 32-5 lead in the opening 9:30 and never looked back. The five post players who filled in for Griffin's presence inside combined to hit 23-of-36 shots from the field, including 3-of-5 three-pointers. Nebraska also enjoyed a 53-33 advantage on the boards.
Sophomore guard Dominique Kelley added 13 points to give NU five players in double figures. In all, 13 Huskers played at least five minutes, including 11 Huskers who played double-figure minutes. Despite the deep rotation, NU committed just 14 turnovers while forcing 34 by the NCAA Division II Eagles.
"It's a starting point," Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said. "I thought we played pretty well at times and did some good things in the second half especially. I thought we did a nice job of taking care of the ball, and I thought one positive was that we had 21 assists and just 14 turnovers, even though we had 13 players play in the game."
Tay Hester, the only senior available for the exhibition opener, scored nine points, grabbed five boards and led NU with five steals. Junior guard Yvonne Turner added nine points and five more steals, while sophomore guard Kaitlyn Burke made the first start of her career and scored seven points.
Junior guard Kala Kuhlmann also provided major contributions with five points, five rebounds and five assists in 20 minutes of action.
Overall, the Huskers hit 53.2 percent (41-77) of their shots from the field, including 6-of-16 three-pointers. NU also connected on 14-of-21 free throws. NU had 21 assists and just 14 turnovers, while recording 19 steals and five blocked shots, including a pair by Redmon.
Alyssa Lyman led the Eagles with 13 points and six rebounds, while Samantha Arkulari added 10 points and four boards. CSC hit just 10-of-50 shots from the field, including 1-of-18 three-pointers. The Eagles hit 9-of-20 free throws and recorded just four assists against their 34 turnovers.
Despite the lopsided final score, Yori praised the effort of the Eagles, competing for the first time under first-year head coach Tim Connealy, who took the reins of the Chadron State program in August.
"I thought Chadron State played hard for 40 minutes, and I thought they were in good shape," Yori said. "They were forced to play kind of a different style with five guards out on the floor for a lot of the time, but I thought they did some good things."
Connealy, who spent the past four seasons as an assistant coach under former Husker Carol Russell at Nebraska-Kearney, said he was pleased with the effort his team showed.
"We broke it down to playing every possession hard, rather than playing the score, and I thought we did that tonight," Connealy said. "We knew we were overmatched, but you still have to play the possession."
The Huskers will conclude exhibition competition on Wednesday, Nov. 5, when they play Nebraska-Kearney in Grand Island, Neb. Tip-off at the Heartland Events Center is set for 7:05 p.m. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.com or through the Fonner Park Box Office in Grand Island.
Official Basketball Box Score Official Basketball Box Score Chadron State vs Nebraska 10/31/08 7:05 p.m. at Bob Devaney Sports Center - Lincoln, NE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Chadron State TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 15 Kelsey Scott........ f 0-5 0-3 0-0 0 2 2 4 0 0 8 1 0 19 24 Samantha Arkulari... f 3-17 0-0 4-6 3 2 5 4 10 0 8 0 1 29 30 Alyssa Lyman........ c 5-14 1-8 2-5 1 5 6 2 13 1 4 0 0 31 10 Chelsea DeHaven..... g 0-0 0-0 0-2 2 6 8 5 0 1 2 0 1 17 14 Whitney Segelke..... g 0-4 0-2 3-6 1 0 1 2 3 2 6 0 1 32 03 Bobbi Arends........ 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 4 4 3 0 0 2 0 0 29 04 Vanessa Schroeder... 2-4 0-1 0-0 1 2 3 2 4 0 3 0 1 22 11 Sarah Gross......... 0-2 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 32 Trysta Gruber....... 0-3 0-2 0-1 1 3 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 21 42 Sarah Downey........ 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 TEAM................ 1 1 Totals.............. 10-50 1-18 9-20 9 25 34 23 30 4 34 1 4 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 6-22 27.3% 2nd Half: 4-28 14.3% Game: 20.0% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-6 16.7% 2nd Half: 0-12 0.0% Game: 5.6% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 8-15 53.3% 2nd Half: 1-5 20.0% Game: 45.0% 3
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Nebraska 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 4-8 0-0 1-1 3 2 5 3 9 2 2 0 5 18 40 Montgomery, Cory.... f 4-9 1-2 4-5 2 5 7 1 13 0 1 1 0 18 42 Bober, Nikki........ c 5-7 0-0 1-2 0 2 2 2 11 2 2 0 1 17 05 Burke, Kaitlyn...... g 2-4 1-2 2-2 0 1 1 2 7 3 0 0 0 23 24 Kelley, Dominique... g 6-8 0-0 1-3 0 1 1 1 13 0 1 0 1 17 11 Neals, Nicole....... 0-2 0-1 2-2 1 0 1 1 2 5 0 0 2 18 12 Reeves, Layne....... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 5 13 Kuhlmann, Kala...... 1-7 1-2 2-2 1 4 5 1 5 5 1 0 1 20 15 Whittaker, Monique.. 1-3 0-2 1-2 1 2 3 1 3 0 0 0 1 6 21 Sidhu, Harleen...... 4-6 2-3 0-0 2 6 8 2 10 1 0 1 1 13 22 Turner, Yvonne...... 4-8 1-4 0-0 0 2 2 3 9 3 3 0 5 20 35 Periago, Jessica.... 2-3 0-0 0-1 1 1 2 2 4 0 1 0 0 12 44 Redmon, Catheryn.... 8-11 0-0 0-1 2 7 9 0 16 0 2 2 2 13 TEAM................ 2 3 5 Totals.............. 41-77 6-16 14-21 15 37 52 19 102 21 14 5 19 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 22-40 55.0% 2nd Half: 19-37 51.4% Game: 53.2% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-9 44.4% 2nd Half: 2-7 28.6% Game: 37.5% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 10-13 76.9% 2nd Half: 4-8 50.0% Game: 66.7% 3,2
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Debbie Adams, Nick Marshall, Ann Schroeder Technical fouls: Chadron State-None. Nebraska-None. Attendance: 1135 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total Chadron State................. 21 9 - 30 Nebraska...................... 58 44 - 102