Lincoln - Cory Montgomery scored 18 points and Yvonne Turner added 17 points to lead the Nebraska women's basketball team to its first Big 12 Conference win of the year with a 67-58 victory over Kansas at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Wednesday night.
With the victory, Nebraska improved to 10-7 on the year, including 1-3 in the Big 12, while Kansas slipped to 12-5 overall and 1-3 in the league. The win was Nebraska's sixth straight in the series over the Jayhawks in Lincoln.
Nebraska trailed by one at the half but bolted out of the locker room on a 15-3 surge in the first 7:26 of the second half, holding KU to just one field goal to take a 47-36 lead with 13:03 to play. Dominique Kelley led NU with five points and Catheryn Redmon and Tay Hester each pitched in four points during the stretch, while Montgomery added a jumper to the run.
Kelley, a Lincoln native who was honored as a "Hometown Husker" during the game, scored seven of her nine points in the second half after being strapped with foul trouble in the first half. Hester posted her best performance in Big 12 play of the season with 10 points off the bench on 5-of-7 shooting from the field. Hester had hit just one field goal and scored just four points in NU's first three Big 12 games. Hester and Nicole Neals, who hit a pair of three-pointers, combined for 16 points off the bench, as NU outscored the Jayhawk reserves, 16-0 on the night.
Nebraska's big advantage in bench scoring helped off a huge night by KU star Danielle McCray, who pumped in a career-high 30 points on 12-of-18 shooting from the field. McCray, who hit all three of her three-point attempts, added eight rebounds, three steals and three blocks. Sophomore center Krysten Boogaard added 18 points and 13 rebounds, but committed seven turnovers for the Jayhawks. Those two Jayhawks combined for 48 of KU's 58 points, including 23-of-25 in the second half.
Nebraska hit 42.6 percent (26-61) of its shots from the field, including 36.8 percent (7-19) from three-point range. NU also connected on 8-of-11 free throws. The Huskers were outrebounded, 35-27, by the Jayhawks but pulled down 13 offensive boards, compared to just 11 for KU. Nebraska also turned up the defensive pressure on Kansas, forcing 22 turnovers while committing just 10 of its own, including just three miscues in the second half.
Kansas lost despite hitting 51.1 percent (24-47) of its shots from the field, including 4-of-8 three-pointers. KU did hit just 6-of-11 free throws. It was the first time in Coach Bonnie Henrickson's Kansas coaching career that the Jayhawks lost when hitting 50 percent or better of their shots from the floor.
Kansas held a slim 33-32 halftime lead after hitting a blistering 60.9 percent (14-23) of its shots from the field. McCray led KU with 13 first-half points on 6-of-7 shooting from the floor, while Boogaard added 12 points and seven boards in the opening half.
Montgomery led Nebraska with eight first-half points, while Turner hit for seven points and Hester and Neals each contributed six points off the bench. However, the Huskers trailed by one point after hitting just 42.4 percent (14-33) of their shots from the field in the half. NU did not get to the free throw line in the first half, but did hit 4-of-11 three-pointers.
Although NU trailed at the half, the Jayhawks suffered a blow when McCray was whistled for her second foul while crashing the offensive glass after her only missed shot of the first 20 minutes. KU, which was already hindered by the absence of junior starter Sade Morris who suffered a concussion in Saturday's loss to Texas Tech, took a major hit when McCray was charged with her third foul just 23 seconds into the second half.
After the foul, Nebraska erupted on a 9-0 run to take an eight-point lead, before McCray stopped the run with a free throw with 14:18 to play. Montgomery and Kelley then hit back-to-back jumpers to give NU its first double-digit lead of the night at 47-36 and force KU to take a second timeout.
McCray hit a field goal to end a seven-minute field goal drought for the Jayhawks, stopping a stretch that KU went 0-for-5 with four turnovers. But Montgomery and Turner combined on a 7-1 surge to give the Huskers their biggest lead of the night at 54-39 with 8:30 left. KU cut NU's lead to eight points on two occasions late in the second half, before Turner and Montgomery combined on 10 points in a 4:30 span to rebuild the 64-49 with 2:40 left in the game.
Nebraska concludes a two-game Big 12 North home stand on Saturday when the Huskers play host to Iowa State. Tip-off at the Devaney Center is set for 8 p.m. with live national television coverage provided by Fox Sports Net. The game with ISU will be the second half of a men's and women's basketball doubleheader at the Devaney Center, following a 3 p.m. men's tip-off between NU and Oklahoma State. Fans holding a men's ticket will be admitted to the women's game for free, and fans at the women's basketball game are encouraged to bring a new or used pair of shoes for donation to the Samaritan's Feet project.
Official Basketball Box Score Official Basketball Box Score Kansas vs Nebraska 1/21/09 7:05pm at Bob Devaney Sports Center- Lincoln, Neb.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Kansas 12-5, 1-3 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 14 Boogaard,Krysten.... f 8-14 0-0 2-2 4 9 13 4 18 1 7 1 1 37 24 Smith,Nicollette.... f 2-6 1-4 1-2 0 4 4 4 6 0 1 1 1 37 00 Jacobs,LaChelda..... g 2-5 0-0 0-0 1 2 3 3 4 4 6 0 0 25 03 Catic,Ivana......... g 0-4 0-1 0-0 0 2 2 3 0 3 1 0 0 34 04 McCray,Danielle..... g 12-18 3-3 3-5 3 5 8 4 30 1 4 3 3 35 02 Kohn,Kelly.......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 2 3 0 0 1 2 0 0 25 34 Weddington,Porscha.. 0-0 0-0 0-2 2 0 2 1 0 0 1 1 1 7 TEAM................ Totals.............. 24-47 4-8 6-11 11 24 35 19 58 10 22 6 6 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 14-23 60.9% 2nd Half: 10-24 41.7% Game: 51.1% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-4 50.0% 2nd Half: 2-4 50.0% Game: 50.0% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 3-4 75.0% 2nd Half: 3-7 42.9% Game: 54.5% 3
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Nebraska 10-7, 1-3 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 7-17 0-3 4-5 2 4 6 1 18 3 2 0 1 34 44 Redmon, Catheryn.... f 2-6 0-0 0-0 4 1 5 5 4 0 0 2 0 19 05 Burke, Kaitlyn...... g 1-3 1-2 0-0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 0 26 22 Turner, Yvonne...... g 6-11 3-6 2-4 0 2 2 0 17 4 2 0 3 31 24 Kelley, Dominique... g 3-7 1-1 2-2 1 1 2 3 9 0 0 0 1 18 11 Neals, Nicole....... 2-4 2-4 0-0 0 0 0 0 6 0 1 0 0 17 13 Kuhlmann, Kala...... 0-3 0-1 0-0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 10 21 Sidhu, Harleen...... 0-3 0-2 0-0 0 3 3 0 0 0 2 0 2 24 32 Hester, Tay......... 5-7 0-0 0-0 2 2 4 1 10 2 1 0 0 20 35 Periago, Jessica.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 TEAM................ 3 1 4 Totals.............. 26-61 7-19 8-11 13 14 27 12 67 10 10 2 7 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 14-33 42.4% 2nd Half: 12-28 42.9% Game: 42.6% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-11 36.4% 2nd Half: 3-8 37.5% Game: 36.8% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 0-0 0.0% 2nd Half: 8-11 72.7% Game: 72.7% 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Michael Price, Clarke Stevens, Gator Parrish Technical fouls: Kansas-None. Nebraska-None. Attendance: 2763 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total Kansas........................ 33 25 - 58 Nebraska...................... 32 35 - 67