Lincoln - The Nebraska women's basketball team started the 2009-10 season on fire, as the Huskers hit their first nine shots from the floor to race to a 22-6 lead and never looked back in an 86-62 victory over Davidson at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Friday night.
Senior forward Kelsey Griffin led Nebraska with 13 points and seven rebounds on a perfect shooting night from the floor to lead the Huskers to victory in their regular-season opener. Griffin, an All-America candidate from Eagle River, Alaska, went 5-for-5 from the field, including her lone three-point attempt, while also hitting a pair of free throws. The 6-2 forward did all of her damage in just 18 minutes of action.
Fellow senior forward Cory Montgomery scored 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting in just 15 minutes, while senior guard Nicole Neals added a career-high 12 points off the bench. Senior guards Yvonne Turner and Kala Kuhlmann each pitched in nine points, while senior center Nikki Bober pitched in eight points, as NU's six seniors registered the Huskers' top six scoring totals on the night.
Thirteen Huskers found the scoring column on the night, including seven points and six rebounds from junior guard Dominique Kelley, who started her 65th straight game for NU. Fellow junior Kaitlyn Burke also scored seven points off the bench in her first action this season after foot surgery in September.
Freshman Lindsey Moore earned a start in her first career game and scored the first points of the season on a 15-foot jumper following the opening tip. Moore, a 5-9 point guard from Covington, Wash., finished with five points and eight assists, while committing just one turnover. Moore had seven of those assists in the first half, as she quarterbacked the Huskers to a 46-26 halftime lead.
After the sizzling start, Nebraska finished the game hitting just 26-of-57 shots (45.6 percent) from the floor, including 8-of-21 three-pointers (38.1 percent). The Huskers also knocked down 26-of-42 free throws. Nebraska outrebounded the Wildcats 44-32 and forced 25 turnovers by Davidson. NU also committed 25 turnovers of its own, as 12 Huskers played double-figure minutes in the game.
Davidson finished the night 22-of-54 (40.7 percent) from the field, but went just 0-for-3 from three-point range as Nebraska's pressure defense took away any Wildcat threat from beyond the arc. Davidson also hit 18-of-29 free throws, as the two teams were whistled for a combined 59 fouls in the game, the third-highest total in school history.
Wildcat Barbara Sitton added 13 points, while Nebraska native Monica Laune pitched in 10 points, four steals and two assists, while playing for the first time in the state of Nebraska during her collegiate career. Freshman Sophia Alexandravicious contributed 10 points and eight boards off the bench for the Wildcats.
Nebraska erupted out of the blocks as Moore hit a jumper at the free throw line after Griffin won the tip. Thompson tied the score at two for the Wildcats on Davidson's opening possession, before Griffin notched a three-point play to give NU a 5-2 edge.
Griffin then grabbed a steal and dished it to Montgomery to give the Huskers a 7-2 lead, before Kelley knocked down a short jumper to push NU's advantage to 9-2 less than two minutes into the game.
Turner then entered the game after having her streak of 64 consecutive starts end in the NU backcourt and made an immediate impact. She came up with a steal and found Moore, who threw a 35-foot cross-court pass to Turner standing all alone in the left corner. Turner drained the three-pointer to give NU's its first double-digit lead of the night at 12-2 with 17:19 left in the half.
Davidson's Amanda Ottaway got a layup to cut it to 12-4, before Montgomery got another layup and Turner buried another three-pointer after a block by Catheryn Redmon started transition for the Huskers. Moore then got a defensive rebound and started transition, where she found Redmon running for the floor for an uncontested layup to make it 19-4 with 15:40 left in the half.
After a jumper by Laune for Davidson, Kuhlmann buried her first three-point attempt of the season off an assist from Griffin to extend NU's edge to 22-6 with 14:42 left in the half.
Davidson eventually battled back to trim the edge to 27-16 with 8:27 left in the first half, but the Wildcats never got the lead to single digits. The Huskers went to the locker room at the half with a 20-point lead and extended that advantage to 70-35 with 8:57 left after a pair of Burke free throws.
The Huskers return to action on Sunday for the their first road game of the season at UNLV. Tip-off against the Lady Rebels at the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nev., is set for 4 p.m. (Central) with live radio coverage provided by the Husker Sports Network, including 98.1 KFGE in Lincoln, 93.3 KTWI in Omaha and 880 KRVN in Lexington. Free live audio will also be available on Huskers.com.
Official Basketball Box Score Official Basketball Box Score Davidson vs Nebraska 11/13/09 7:05pm at Bob Devaney Sports Center- Lincoln, Neb.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Davidson 0-1, 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 35 PAQUETTE, Julia..... f 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 5 2 0 0 0 0 12 14 DAVIS, Sarah........ c 2-3 0-0 1-2 0 2 2 5 5 0 1 1 1 15 02 LAUNE, Monica....... g 3-9 0-1 4-4 0 2 2 4 10 2 8 1 4 26 10 THOMPSON, Alex...... g 6-9 0-1 3-3 1 3 4 2 15 0 1 0 0 31 32 SITTON, Barbara..... g 5-11 0-0 3-6 3 1 4 3 13 4 5 0 4 28 20 WOODINGTON, Chloe... 0-2 0-0 1-2 0 2 2 4 1 1 2 0 0 16 21 ALEKSANDRAVICIUS, S. 4-7 0-0 2-4 2 6 8 2 10 0 2 2 0 34 24 LAX, Ashley......... 0-3 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 3 0 1 1 0 0 9 25 CALIN, Jasmine...... 0-4 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 1 0 1 2 1 1 11 33 OTTAWAY, Amanda..... 1-3 0-0 1-2 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 5 42 JOHNSEN, Kristen.... 0-1 0-0 3-6 0 1 1 2 3 0 3 0 0 13 Team................ 1 5 6 Totals.............. 22-54 0-3 18-29 8 24 32 33 62 9 25 5 10 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 9-23 39.1% 2nd Half: 13-31 41.9% Game: 40.7% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 0-3 0.0% 2nd Half: 0-0 0.0% Game: 0.0% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 8-13 61.5% 2nd Half: 10-16 62.5% Game: 62.1% 7
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Nebraska 1-0, 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 23 Griffin, Kelsey..... f 5-5 1-1 2-2 1 6 7 1 13 2 4 1 1 18 40 Montgomery, Cory.... f 5-8 0-1 1-2 2 1 3 0 11 0 4 0 0 15 00 Moore, Lindsey...... g 1-4 0-2 3-6 0 2 2 2 5 8 1 0 2 23 13 Kuhlmann, Kala...... g 2-6 1-3 4-4 1 2 3 2 9 1 2 0 3 14 24 Kelley, Dominique... g 2-2 0-0 3-3 0 6 6 3 7 1 4 0 0 14 05 Burke, Kaitlyn...... 2-5 1-3 2-2 0 0 0 0 7 0 1 0 0 13 10 Williams, Meghin.... 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 4 11 Neals, Nicole....... 4-6 2-3 2-4 1 1 2 1 12 1 1 0 0 20 12 Reeves, Layne....... 0-0 0-0 1-4 1 2 3 1 1 0 1 0 2 12 20 Leick, Katya........ 0-3 0-0 1-2 0 1 1 3 1 0 2 0 0 8 22 Turner, Yvonne...... 3-6 3-3 0-1 1 1 2 2 9 0 3 0 1 16 35 Periago, Jessica.... 0-4 0-3 1-2 1 1 2 1 1 0 0 1 0 11 42 Bober, Nikki........ 1-3 0-1 6-8 2 2 4 4 8 0 1 2 0 16 44 Redmon, Catheryn.... 1-3 0-0 0-2 3 3 6 4 2 0 1 2 0 16 TEAM................ 3 3 Totals.............. 26-57 8-21 26-42 16 28 44 26 86 13 25 6 9 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 17-27 63.0% 2nd Half: 9-30 30.0% Game: 45.6% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 5-10 50.0% 2nd Half: 3-11 27.3% Game: 38.1% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 7-15 46.7% 2nd Half: 19-27 70.4% Game: 61.9% 7
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Lisa Mattingly, Debbie Adams, Chaney Muench Technical fouls: Davidson-None. Nebraska-None. Attendance: 2356 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total Davidson...................... 26 36 - 62 Nebraska...................... 46 40 - 86