Ames, Iowa - Senior Yvonne Turner led four Huskers in double figures with 14 points and seven rebounds to help fuel No. 12 Nebraska's 57-49 women's basketball win over No. 23 Iowa State at Hilton Coliseum on Saturday night.
In addition to a strong performance from Turner, senior forward Kelsey Griffin produced her sixth double-double of the year with 13 points and a game-high 11 rebounds, while junior guard Dominique Kelley contributed 11 points, including nine in the second half, to go along with five boards and two assists. Senior forward Cory Montgomery pitched in 10 points and eight boards, as Nebraska won for just the second time in the last 13 years at Hilton Coliseum.
Nebraska's victory extended its school-record winning streak to 14 games while remaining one of five unbeaten teams in the nation. More importantly, the Huskers picked up a road win at one of the toughest venues in the Big 12 to start the conference season with a league win.
Iowa State slipped to 12-2 on the year and 0-1 in the Big 12 while having its 12-game home winning streak snapped by the Huskers.
"That is a great win for our basketball team," Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said. "I think the single hardest thing to do is to win a game in the Big 12 Conference in women's basketball. That is the main reason why this is a great win. Normally, we say if you want to beat Iowa State in Ames, you better be able to hit shots. Tonight we won and we didn't hit many shots. Our defense was very good in the second half."
Nebraska trailed 33-29 early in the second half after Iowa State opened the half on a 6-0 run. But Kelley got Nebraska's offense started by scoring four straight points to tie the game at 33 with 14:20 left. Alison Lacey, who led Iowa State with a game-high 23 points, then buried a three-pointer to give ISU a 36-33 lead with 13:59 left.
Kelley scored again for NU, and then the Husker defense took over. After a Lacey free throw pushed the ISU edge to 39-37 with 11:55 left, Nebraska got five straight points from Griffin to take a 40-37 lead with 9:35 to play. Kelley then nailed the Huskers' lone three-pointer of the second half to push the NU edge to 43-37 with 7:48 to play.
Kelley's three-pointer forced Iowa State Coach Bill Fennelly to burn a timeout, and the Cyclones were able to get a field goal from Jessica Schroll, who finished with four points and eight rebounds off the bench to cut into the NU lead.
Turner then answered with a strong running one-hander from the right side with 7:03 to play. The two teams then played more than three-and-a-half minutes without scoring, before Turner scored again to push NU's margin to 47-39.
Fennelly was forced to burn another timeout to try and draw up a play to stop end the ISU drought, but the Cyclones misfired and Griffin was fouled. She stepped to the line after opening the game 1-for-7 at the free throw stripe and calmly knocked down a pair to give NU its biggest lead of the night at 49-39 with 2:58 to play.
Lacey finally got past a Nebraska defense that had allowed just one field goal in an 11:30 span. Her back-to-back baskets, including a three-point play with 1:52 left, trimmed NU's lead to 49-44, but Nebraska knocked down 10-of-12 free throws down the stretch to seal the victory, after opening the game just 3-for-9 from the stripe.
The Huskers beat the Cyclones despite hitting just 7-of-31 shots from the field, after opening the game 12-for-20, including 5-for-12 from three-point range. NU went just 1-for-14 from long range in the second half. Nebraska survived by committing just three second-half turnovers, and outrebounded ISU, 38-35 on the night.
The Huskers carried a narrow 29-27 halftime lead thanks to nine first-half points from Montgomery and eight from Turner. NU hit 50 percent (12-24) of its first-half shots, while Iowa State hit 40 percent (12-30) of its shots and just 1-of-5 three-pointers. ISU, one of the nation's top three-point shooting teams, did not hit a three until Denae Stuckey rattled in a triple from the right wing with five seconds left in the half.
Iowa State scored the first two points of the game, but did not lead the rest of the half, as the Huskers built their biggest lead of the half at nine on a Montgomery jumper with 7:18 left to make it 19-10. The 6-2 forward from Cannon Falls, Minn., added four first-half rebounds, to help the Huskers carry a 16-15 edge on the glass.
Turner also pulled down four boards, while knocking down a pair of threes, while Griffin managed four points and four boards in the first half.
Lacey led Iowa State with eight first-half points, while Stuckey pitched in five points and five rebounds. Freshman center Anna Prinns also gave ISU a lift with four points off the bench, along with freshman Chelsea Poppens.
The Huskers open Big 12 Conference home action by taking on No. 15 Texas on Tuesday night at the Devaney Center in Lincoln. Tip-off is set for 7:05 p.m. with live radio coverage from the Husker Sports Network, including free live audio on Huskers.com. Tickets are available at Huskers.com or by calling 1-800-8-BIG-RED. The Longhorns come to Lincoln with an 11-4 record after suffering a home loss to No. 10 Texas A&M to open league play on Saturday.
Official Basketball Box Score Official Basketball Box Score Nebraska vs Iowa State 01/09/10 7 p.m. at Hilton Coliseum - Ames, Iowa
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Nebraska 14-0, 1-0 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 00 Moore, Lindsey...... * 1-4 1-4 0-0 0 2 2 1 3 3 2 0 0 22 22 Turner, Yvonne...... * 5-14 2-11 2-2 0 7 7 2 14 1 3 0 0 35 23 Griffin, Kelsey..... * 4-9 0-0 5-11 2 9 11 3 13 1 2 1 1 33 24 Kelley, Dominique... * 4-10 1-3 2-2 2 3 5 1 11 2 2 0 0 28 40 Montgomery, Cory.... * 4-7 1-2 1-2 3 5 8 3 10 0 0 1 0 34 11 Neals, Nicole....... 1-1 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 1 3 1 0 0 1 14 13 Kuhlmann, Kala...... 0-5 0-5 3-4 1 1 2 0 3 1 0 0 0 21 44 Redmon, Catheryn.... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 13 TEAM................ 2 1 3 Totals.............. 19-51 6-26 13-21 10 28 38 13 57 9 11 2 2 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-24 50.0% 2nd Half: 7-27 25.9% Game: 37.3% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 5-12 41.7% 2nd Half: 1-14 7.1% Game: 23.1% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 0-2 0.0% 2nd Half: 13-19 68.4% Game: 61.9% 3
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Iowa State 12-2, 0-1 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 Lacey, Alison....... * 9-21 1-5 4-5 0 4 4 3 23 3 1 0 2 38 10 Stuckey, Denae...... * 2-5 1-2 0-0 3 3 6 5 5 1 2 0 0 31 11 Bolte, Kelsey....... * 0-5 0-0 2-2 3 4 7 1 2 0 1 0 1 38 23 Cole, Chassidy...... * 1-1 0-0 1-2 0 0 0 4 3 0 1 0 0 7 33 Poppens, Chelsea.... * 2-5 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 3 4 0 3 0 0 19 02 Williams, Whitney... 0-3 0-3 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 10 12 Schroll, Jessica.... 2-5 0-0 0-0 1 7 8 1 4 2 3 0 1 29 42 Zimmerman, Amanda... 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 2 0 0 1 0 0 7 55 Prins, Anna......... 4-9 0-2 0-0 0 6 6 0 8 0 0 2 0 21 TEAM................ 3 3 Totals.............. 20-55 2-12 7-9 8 27 35 19 49 7 12 2 4 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-30 40.0% 2nd Half: 8-25 32.0% Game: 36.4% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-5 20.0% 2nd Half: 1-7 14.3% Game: 16.7% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 2-2 100 % 2nd Half: 5-7 71.4% Game: 77.8% 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Lisa Jones, Maj Forsberg, Billy Smith Technical fouls: Nebraska-None. Iowa State-None. Attendance: 9066 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total Nebraska...................... 29 28 - 57 Iowa State.................... 27 22 - 49 Fouled Out: ISU: #10 Stuckey @ 0:40.3