Waco, Texas - The Nebraska women's basketball team tied a school record with 12 three-pointers and played suffocating defense down the stretch to shoot its way to a 65-56 victory over No. 9 Baylor at the Ferrell Center on Sunday afternoon.
Playing in front of a Baylor season-high crowd of 7,883 and an FSN national television audience, Husker senior guard Yvonne Turner fueled Nebraska's three-point barrage with a career-high six threes. Turner, who hit five threes against No. 19 Texas on Tuesday, finished with a season-high 22 points, while adding six rebounds, a season-high four steals and two assists.
"We didn't come into the game with a plan of shooting a lot of three-pointers, but they were there for us and we finally started hitting them after missing early in the game," Turner said. "I was just glad I could help my teammates by knocking down some shots. Our inside game with Kelsey (Griffin) and Cory (Montgomery) draws so much attention, that it leaves us open, so we have to hit. Luckily, we were able to do that today."
Senior forward Cory Montgomery added a season-high 18 points by tying her career best with three three-pointers of her own to help Nebraska stretch its school-record winning streak to 16 games while improving to 16-0 overall and 3-0 in the Big 12. The Huskers notched the first-ever true road win over a top-10 team in school history, while getting their first-ever road win over an AP top-25 team in Coach Connie Yori's tenure at Nebraska. Baylor slipped to 14-3 on the year, while dipping to 1-2 in the Big 12, while having its 14-game home winning streak snapped by the Huskers.
Senior forward Kelsey Griffin made huge plays throughout the day for the Huskers, finishing with her eighth double-double of the year and 28th of her career with 13 points and a game-high 12 rebounds, despite hitting just 5-of-16 shots from the field against Baylor. Although the points were hard to come by for Griffin, she drew a career-high four charges against the Lady Bears, and dished out a career-high five assists. She added two steals in the game, as Nebraska defeated BU for the first time at the Ferrell Center since 2000.
"That was a great win for us," Griffin said. "Obviously Baylor is a great program and they have some amazing athletes and players. They are going to do great things, but we felt like we were the more experienced team and that helped us down the stretch today."
Nebraska took a 31-26 halftime lead despite hitting just 2-of-15 shots from the field and one of its first 11 three-point attempts in the game, before Turner heated up. Baylor, which led by as many as seven points in the first half, then erupted out of the halftime locker room on a 6-0 run in the the opening 1:30 to regain a 32-32 lead.
Montgomery's first three of the game stopped the Baylor run and the two teams were locked into a one-possession game for the next 12 minutes.
Trailing 50-48, Nebraska got a free throw from Griffin with 7:42 left and a three-pointer from Montgomery with 7:14 to play to retake a 52-50 lead. Griffin grabbed a defensive rebound to get a stop on BU's next possession and Turner attacked at the other end, drawing a foul on Terran Condrey. Turner hit both free throws to push NU's lead to 54-50 with 6:40 left.
Brittney Griner hit 1-of-2 free throws at the other end, before Turner drained her fifth three-pointer of the game to push NU's edge to 57-51. Condrey got a free throw for the Lady Bears before Griffin made a strong move to finish to match NU's biggest lead of the game at 59-52 with 5:30 to play.
Condrey got a steal and a layup to pull BU with five at 59-54 with 4:59 to play, but Nebraska's defense shut out the Lady Bears for the next 4:35. Griffin's jumper with 1:49 left pushed NU's margin back to seven at 61-54 before Montgomery extended NU's lead to eight with a free throw with 1:21 left. After another stop by the Huskers, Turner capped a huge game with her sixth three-pointer of the game to push Nebraska's advantage to double-figures for the first time at 65-54 with 37 seconds left.
Griner then ended a stretch for BU with just one field goal in eight minutes by scoring her final basket with 25 seconds left. The 6-8 freshman phenom led the Lady Bears with 18 points, nine rebounds and six blocked shots in 39 minutes. However, Griner was the only BU player in double figures, as her teammates combined to go just 14-of-48 from the field.
Nebraska finished the game at 32.8 percent (22-67) from the field, including 35.3 percent (12-34) from three-point range. The Huskers hit 11 of their last 23 three-point attempts in the game to tie their school record set in the 2008-09 season-opening win over Weber State.
The Huskers outrebounded Baylor, 47-42, and committed just 15 turnovers, while forcing 16 by BU. NU also outscored the Lady Bears, 17-7 on second-chance points.
Nebraska's stifling defense held Baylor to just 22-of-62 shooting (35.5 percent), including 0-for-10 shooting from three-point range, as NU outscored Baylor 36-0 from beyond the arc. Baylor did hit 12-of-16 free throws, while NU connected on 9-of-14.
Nebraska carried a 31-26 lead into the locker room at halftime after trailing by as many as seven points early in the game. The Huskers were ice cold from the field at the start of the game, hitting just 2-of-15 shots, including 1-of-9 three-point attempts, while Baylor produced its biggest lead at 12-5 with 12 minutes left in the first half.
But Griffin scored four straight points and Kelley added a layup to pull NU with 12:11 with 8:42 left in the half. After Baylor's Kelli Griffin scored, Turner knocked down her first of three first-half threes to tie the game at 14 with 7:55 left.
With the score tied at 18 after a Griffin jumper with 6:07 left, Turner nailed back-to-back threes to give the Huskers a 24-18 lead with 5:23 left. Three minutes later Kala Kuhlmann knocked down another three from the corner right in front of the Baylor bench with two seconds on the shot clock to the give the Huskers their biggest lead of the half at 31-24 with 2:16 to play.
The Huskers led despite hitting just 31.4 percent (11-35) of their first-half shots, including 5-of-18 three-pointers, while adding 4-of-6 free throws. NU's defense held the Lady Bears to just 34.4 percent (11-32) from the field, including 0-of-3 from long range, while BU hit all four of its free throw attempts. Nebraska won the first-half rebounding battle, 26-20, while both teams committed seven turnovers.
Turner led all scorers in the first half with 11 points, while Griffin and Montgomery both pitched in six points. Kelli Griffin led BU with six points, while Griner, Kimetria Hayden and Terran Condrey each had four first-half points.
The Huskers will take the mid-week off from competition before returning to the Devaney Center to play host to Big 12 North Division rival Kansas State on Saturday, Jan. 23. Tip-off against the Wildcats (10-7, 2-1) in Lincoln is set for 11 a.m. with Nebraska's "Pepsi Pack the House" promotion offering $1 general admission tickets and 24 oz. Pepsi fountain drinks for just $1. Tickets can be purchased now on Huskers.com or by calling the Nebraska Athletic Ticket Office at 1-800-8-BIG-RED.
Official Basketball Box Score
Official Basketball Box Score Nebraska vs Baylor Lady Bears 01/17/10 2:30 p.m. at Ferrell Center - Waco, Texas
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Nebraska 16-0,(3-0) 11/9 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 5-16 0-4 3-4 3 9 12 3 13 5 5 0 2 34 40 Montgomery, Cory.... f 6-17 3-7 3-4 2 4 6 1 18 1 3 1 0 34 00 Moore, Lindsey...... g 1-4 1-4 0-0 0 2 2 1 3 2 1 0 0 31 22 Turner, Yvonne...... g 7-18 6-14 2-2 0 6 6 1 22 2 2 0 4 37 24 Kelley, Dominique... g 2-6 1-3 1-2 4 4 8 1 6 1 0 1 1 23 11 Neals, Nicole....... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 2 0 2 2 0 0 5 12 Reeves, Layne....... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 13 Kuhlmann, Kala...... 1-2 1-2 0-0 2 1 3 2 3 0 1 0 0 17 44 Redmon, Catheryn.... 0-2 0-0 0-2 2 1 3 4 0 0 1 1 0 14 TEAM................ 3 3 6 Totals.............. 22-67 12-34 9-14 16 31 47 15 65 13 15 3 7 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-35 31.4% 2nd Half: 11-32 34.4% Game: 32.8% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 5-18 27.8% 2nd Half: 7-16 43.8% Game: 35.3% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 4-6 66.7% 2nd Half: 5-8 62.5% Game: 64.3% 4
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Baylor Lady Bears 14-3,(1-2) 9/9 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 55 Medlock, Morghan.... f 0-5 0-0 2-2 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 0 0 12 42 Griner, Brittney.... c 8-14 0-0 2-3 3 6 9 0 18 0 2 6 1 39 15 Washington, Shanay.. g 1-9 0-2 3-4 2 7 9 2 5 3 3 1 2 36 20 Condrey, Terran..... g 4-7 0-2 1-2 0 5 5 3 9 3 5 0 2 31 21 Griffin, Kelli...... g 4-10 0-2 0-0 0 2 2 4 8 0 1 0 1 24 01 Hayden, Kimetria.... 2-5 0-2 4-4 0 4 4 2 8 1 3 0 1 22 03 Madden, Jordan...... 1-9 0-2 0-0 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 7 24 Field, Ashley....... 2-3 0-0 0-1 5 4 9 2 4 0 0 1 2 29 TEAM................ 1 2 3 Totals.............. 22-62 0-10 12-16 12 30 42 13 56 8 16 8 9 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-32 34.4% 2nd Half: 11-30 36.7% Game: 35.5% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 0-3 0.0% 2nd Half: 0-7 0.0% Game: 0.0% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 4-4 100 % 2nd Half: 8-12 66.7% Game: 75.0% 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Scott Yarbrough, Michol Murray, Bill Larance Technical fouls: Nebraska-None. Baylor Lady Bears-TEAM 2. Attendance: 7883 Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total Nebraska...................... 31 34 - 65 Baylor Lady Bears............. 26 30 - 56