Lincoln - Cory Montgomery produced her second double-double of the year with 20 points and 11 rebounds, and the Nebraska women's basketball team unleashed a swarming defense to fly past the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, 70-51, at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Tuesday night.
With the victory, Nebraska improved to 6-1 on the season, while Oral Roberts slipped to 5-2 to snap its five-game winning streak.
Montgomery produced her fourth 20-point scoring effort of the season while matching a career-best with 11 rebounds, including a career-high eight offensive boards. The reigning Big 12 Player of the Week, Montgomery hit 6-of-15 shots from the field, including 1-of-2 three-pointers, while knocking down 7-of-8 free throws.
Junior guard Yvonne Turner and sophomore guard Dominique Kelley each added 12 points. Six other Huskers found the scoring column, including six points from sophomore guard Kaitlyn Burke and four points each from Tay Hester, Nicole Neals, Kala Kuhlmann and Catheryn Redmon, while Harleen Sidhu rounded out the NU scoring with a three-pointer. She also contributed six rebounds.
While Montgomery was leading the Huskers on the offensive end, Nebraska's stifling defense held ORU without a field goal for more than 10 minutes at the end of the first half and the start of the second half. NU led 18-15 after Janae Voelker hit a jumper for ORU with 6:45 left in the first half. But the Huskers outscored the Golden Eagles 10-2 the rest of the half, surrendering just a pair of Jordan Pyle free throws in four attempts to carry a 28-17 halftime lead.
The Huskers continued to surge at the start of the second half, opening with an 8-0 run to push their lead to 19 points at 36-17 with 16:40 left in the game, before Voelker finally hit another field goal to stop NU's 18-2 spurt.
"I was happy with the way we executed our game plan," Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said. "I thought our players did a great job of doing what we asked them to do heading into the game. This is going to be a real quality win for us at the end of the year because Oral Roberts is the kind of team that is going to win 20 games and get to the postseason at the end of the year."
ORU was never able to fully recover despite a huge second half from Mariana Camargo, who scored all of her career-high 19 points in the second half. Camargo, who added nine rebounds, pulled ORU within 14 at 44-30 with 11:46 left, before NU extended its lead to 25 points at 68-43 on a pair of Turner free throws with 3:27 left.
Voelker finished with her fourth straight double-double with 16 points and a career-high 17 rebounds, but outside of those two big guns no other Golden Eagle got off the ground on Tuesday night.
Voelker and Camargo combined to hit 15-of-29 shots from the field, while the rest of the Golden Eagles hit just 5-of-24 shots in the loss. ORU hit 37.7 percent (20-53) of its shots for the game, including 4-of-16 three-pointers. ORU also connected on 7-of-11 free throws.
Nebraska also struggled from the field, but the Huskers forced 25 ORU turnovers while committing just nine of their own for a plus-16 turnover margin on the night. The Golden Eagles outrebounded the Huskers, 45-38, but NU beat ORU on the offensive glass, 15-13, which resulted in a 16-6 edge in second-chance points.
The Huskers were able to pull away from the Golden Eagles despite hitting just 36.2 percent (25-69) of their shots from the field and just 5-of-18 three-point attempts. NU did connect on 15-of-19 free throw attempts (78.9 percent).
The Huskers continue their four-game home stand by playing host to No. 18 Ohio State on Saturday in Lincoln. Tip-off between the Huskers and Buckeyes is set for Noon with free live audio on Huskers.com and premium video provided by HuskersNside.
Official Basketball Box Score Official Basketball Box Score ORU vs Nebraska 12/2/08 7:05pm at Bob Devaney Sports Center- Lincoln, Neb.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: ORU 5-2, 0-0 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 11 VOELKER, Janae...... f 7-12 2-5 0-0 1 16 17 3 16 1 7 0 0 36 43 PEGORARI, Monah..... f 1-5 0-0 0-0 3 2 5 2 2 0 3 1 0 14 01 CAMARGO, Mariana.... g 8-17 0-1 3-4 3 6 9 3 19 3 1 0 0 37 04 JONES, Georgia...... g 3-9 1-3 0-0 1 3 4 1 7 1 2 0 0 38 10 KINDELL, Kelly...... g 0-2 0-2 0-0 0 2 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 16 14 TURNER, Cristal..... 1-5 1-4 2-3 3 0 3 2 5 1 5 3 0 33 15 QUINTAS, Noelia..... 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 2 0 1 2 0 0 17 20 PYLE, Jordan........ 0-0 0-0 2-4 1 0 1 3 2 1 3 0 0 7 22 OAKES, Lameka....... 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 TEAM................ 1 3 4 2 Totals.............. 20-53 4-16 7-11 13 32 45 16 51 9 25 4 0 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 6-22 27.3% 2nd Half: 14-31 45.2% Game: 37.7% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-9 33.3% 2nd Half: 1-7 14.3% Game: 25.0% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 2-4 50.0% 2nd Half: 5-7 71.4% Game: 63.6% 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Nebraska 6-1, 0-0 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 40 Montgomery, Cory.... f 6-15 1-2 7-8 8 3 11 1 20 0 0 2 1 25 05 Burke, Kaitlyn...... g 3-6 1-4 0-0 1 3 4 1 7 1 0 0 0 25 22 Turner, Yvonne...... g 4-12 2-5 2-3 0 2 2 1 12 3 1 0 1 29 24 Kelley, Dominique... g 3-6 0-1 6-8 1 0 1 1 12 1 2 0 2 25 32 Hester, Tay......... g 2-11 0-1 0-0 1 4 5 3 4 1 1 1 2 20 11 Neals, Nicole....... 2-4 0-2 0-0 0 2 2 0 4 3 0 0 0 21 13 Kuhlmann, Kala...... 2-6 0-1 0-0 1 1 2 2 4 1 1 0 0 18 15 Whittaker, Monique.. 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 21 Sidhu, Harleen...... 1-5 1-2 0-0 1 5 6 1 3 0 1 0 0 15 35 Periago, Jessica.... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 42 Bober, Nikki........ 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 3 0 0 1 0 0 8 44 Redmon, Catheryn.... 2-2 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 3 4 0 1 0 0 11 TEAM................ 1 1 2 Totals.............. 25-69 5-18 15-19 15 23 38 16 70 10 9 3 6 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-34 32.4% 2nd Half: 14-35 40.0% Game: 36.2% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-9 11.1% 2nd Half: 4-9 44.4% Game: 27.8% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 5-7 71.4% 2nd Half: 10-12 83.3% Game: 78.9% 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Beverly Roberts, Tina Napier, Marcus Clayton Technical fouls: ORU-TEAM. Nebraska-None. Attendance: 2195 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total ORU........................... 17 34 - 51 Nebraska...................... 28 42 - 70