Manhattan, Kan. - Cory Montgomery scored 13 of her game-high 21 points in the first half to help Nebraska to a two-point halftime lead at No. 14 Kansas State, but the Wildcats came back for a 51-40 women's basketball win at Bramlage Coliseum on Tuesday night.
Nebraska slipped to 10-9 overall and 1-5 in the Big 12, while the 14th-ranked Wildcats improved to 18-1 and 5-1 in the league.
Montgomery, a junior forward from Cannon Falls, Minn., hit 10-of-20 shots from the field and pulled down six rebounds. It was Montgomery's fifth 20-point scoring effort of the season and her first in Big 12 Conference play.
Montgomery was the only Husker in double figures, as the Wildcats held NU to a season-low 40 points. Kansas State, which is leading the nation in scoring defense, held the Huskers to 34.6 percent (18-52) shooting from the field, including just 1-of-10 three-pointers. The Huskers also hit 3-of-4 free throws. Nebraska committed 19 turnovers, but also forced 19 miscues by the Wildcats. K-State outrebounded NU, 35-30, but the Huskers outscored Kansas State, 6-5, on second-chance points.
Although NU managed just 40, the Husker defense held the Wildcats to their second-lowest point total of the season, trailing only the 48 points KSU scored in its lone loss of the year at current No. 2 Oklahoma.
"I thought our players gave a great effort," Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said. "They played really hard and did a good job of executing what we asked them to do on the defensive end. We made some mistakes late in the game as we got fatigued. We just didn't hit enough shots to win the game. Kansas State is a tremendous defensive team and you have to credit the job they do on the defensive end."
Yvonne Turner added six points, seven rebounds and four assists for the Huskers, while also doing a tremendous defensive job on KSU's All-Big 12 point guard Shalee Lehning, who managed just seven points, eight rebounds and five assists.
Ashley Sweat led Kansas State with 18 points, but committed seven turnovers, as Sweat and Montgomery were the only two players in the game to manage double figures.
Shalin Spani gave KSU a big boost off the bench with nine points off a trio of three-pointers, while Kari Kincaid added all seven of her points early in the second half when the Wildcats took control.
Kansas State hit 41.7 percent (20-48) of its shots from the field for the game, including 12-of-24 in the second half. The Wildcats were 6-of-22 from three-point range, and 5-of-8 from the free throw line.
Nebraska led for a good portion of the first half, managing their biggest leads of the night at 8-4 and 21-17. The Wildcats tied the score on back-to-back baskets by Sweat in the final 1:20, but Dominique Kelley's intentional pass to herself off a K-State player on a baseline out-of-bounds play with four seconds left sent NU to the half with a 23-21 lead.
Montgomery scored on NU's first possession of the second half to regain a four-point edge at 25-21, but Kincaid knocked down back-to-back shots, including a three-pointer to give KSU a 26-25 edge with 18:55 left. Montgomery answered with a field goal at 17:06 to give the Huskers their final lead of the night.
Catheryn Redmon, who did not score on the night, but played a major role in holding KSU senior star Marlies Gipson to just two points, then exited the game with a mild ankle injury. With Redmon out of the game, Kansas State scored seven points in 1:47 to take its biggest lead at that point in the game at 33-27 with 15:03 left.
The Huskers cut the KSU advantage to 36-31 on a Montgomery jumper with 11:40 left, but Sweat and Spani combined for nine straight points over the next three minutes, including a pair of Spani threes, as the Wildcats took their biggest lead of the night at 45-31 with 8:39 left. NU was unable to pull within in single digits the rest of the way as the experienced KSU squad executed down the stretch.
Nebraska held Kansas State to a season-low 21 points in the first half, as the Huskers took a 23-21 lead into the locker room at halftime. Montgomery carried NU in the first half, erupting for 13 points, including 11 straight points late in the half to shoot the Huskers to the halftime lead. Turner added six points, six rebounds and three first-half assists.
The Huskers hit 11-of-28 shots from the field, including 1-4 three-pointers, in the opening half. NU did not shoot a free throw for the second straight half, but outrebounded KSU, 19-15 in the opening half, outscoring the Wildcats 4-0 on second chance points. NU committed 11 turnovers, but forced 10 first-half miscues by KSU. The Wildcats hit just 8-of-24 shots from the floor, including 2-of-9 three-pointers, while hitting 3-of-4 free throws.
Sweat led the Wildcats with 10 first-half points, but committed five of Kansas State's 10 turnovers in the opening period. Kelsey Nelson added five points off the bench, while NU held Lehning to just three points, three rebounds and one assist in the first half.
The Huskers complete their five-game Big 12 North Division road swing on Saturday, when they travel to Boulder to take on Colorado. Tip-off at the Coors Events Center is set for 2 p.m. (central) with live national television coverage on Fox Sports Net. Free audio will also be available on Huskers.com.
Official Basketball Box Score Official Basketball Box Score Nebraska vs Kansas State 1/27/09 7 p.m. at Manhattan, Kan. (Bramlage Coliseum)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Nebraska 10-9, 1-5 Big 12 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 10-20 1-3 0-0 2 4 6 3 21 0 1 0 0 36 44 Redmon, Catheryn.... c 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 3 0 0 3 0 1 28 22 Turner, Yvonne...... g 3-15 0-5 0-0 1 6 7 1 6 4 5 0 1 37 24 Kelley, Dominique... g 2-7 0-0 0-0 0 4 4 0 4 0 2 0 0 27 5 Burke, Kaitlyn...... g 1-4 0-2 0-0 0 1 1 2 2 1 2 0 1 25 11 Neals, Nicole....... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 13 Kuhlmann, Kala...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 2 3 0 0 1 1 0 1 10 21 Sidhu, Harleen...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 1 16 32 Hester, Tay......... 2-5 0-0 3-4 0 3 3 4 7 1 3 0 1 18 35 Periago, Jessica.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 TEAM................ 3 1 4 Totals.............. 18-52 1-10 3-4 7 23 30 14 40 7 19 0 6 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-28 39.3% 2nd Half: 7-24 29.2% Game: 34.6% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-4 25.0% 2nd Half: 0-6 0.0% Game: 10.0% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 0-0 0.0% 2nd Half: 3-4 75.0% Game: 75.0% 0
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Kansas State 18-1, 5-1 Big 12 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 04 Sweat, Ashley....... f 8-10 0-1 2-4 1 2 3 1 18 1 7 1 1 37 25 Zanotti, Danielle... f 1-6 1-5 0-0 1 3 4 1 3 0 2 1 0 20 51 Gipson, Marlies..... f 1-6 0-0 0-0 0 6 6 0 2 5 3 1 3 32 05 Lehning, Shalee..... g 3-7 0-2 1-2 4 4 8 2 7 5 3 0 5 39 41 Kincaid, Kari....... g 3-6 1-2 0-0 1 0 1 0 7 0 2 0 0 35 02 Nelson, Kelsey...... 1-5 1-4 2-2 0 0 0 0 5 1 0 0 0 7 10 Hill, Kelsey........ 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 23 Spani, Shalin....... 3-8 3-8 0-0 0 5 5 1 9 1 0 0 0 18 33 Childs, Jalana...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 34 Brown, Branshea..... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 3 0 0 2 0 0 8 TEAM................ 4 4 Totals.............. 20-48 6-22 5-8 7 28 35 8 51 13 19 3 9 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 8-24 33.3% 2nd Half: 12-24 50.0% Game: 41.7% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-9 22.2% 2nd Half: 4-13 30.8% Game: 27.3% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 3-4 75.0% 2nd Half: 2-4 50.0% Game: 62.5% 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Scotty Hermann, Metta Roberts, Peter Contreras Technical fouls: Nebraska-None. Kansas State-None. Attendance: 3717 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total Nebraska...................... 23 17 - 40 Kansas State.................. 21 30 - 51