Lincoln - Freshman point guard Lindsey Moore hit a career-high four three-pointers to finish with a career-best 18 points to shoot No. 3 Nebraska to a 60-50 win over No. 13 Iowa State in front of 10,988 fans at the Bob Devaney Sports on Wednesday night.
Senior forward Cory Montgomery added 16 points, while senior forward Kelsey Griffin contributed a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds, Nebraska set the school record for single-season victories by improving to 24-0 overall and 11-0 in the Big 12 Conference. The Huskers also extended their homecourt winning streak to 17 games.
Iowa State, playing without All-Big 12 point guard Alison Lacey who sat out with a concussion suffered in practice in Ames on Tuesday, slipped to 19-5 overall and 7-4 in the Big 12.
"We caught a break tonight with Alison Lacey not being able to play," Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said. "She is a great player and one of the best point guards in our league, so that obviously affected Iowa State. You've got to credit Iowa State and their coaching staff and players for stepping up to the challenge. We caught a break, but our players also made the most of it by making the plays they needed to win."
Junior guard Kelsey Bolte led Iowa State with 15 points, while freshman guard Jessica Schroll stepped up big in Lacey's place with a career-high 14 points to go along with four assists. Freshman center Anna Prins added nine points and 10 rebounds.
Nebraska completed a season sweep of the Cyclones despite hitting just 38.3 percent (18-47) of its field goal attempts, including just 5-of-22 three-pointers. Moore hit 4-of-7 threes, surpassing her previous career-best of two triples. Montgomery added NU's other three, as the Huskers combined to hit just 22.7 percent of their shots from long range. NU dominated at the free throw line, outscoring ISU 19-4 by hitting 76 percent of its attempts (19-25).
The Huskers also posted a Big 12 season-best plus-14 turnover margin (24-10) for their third double-digit turnover margin in the past five games. Senior guard Yvonne Turner, who early in the game became the 25th Husker in history to join the school's 1,000-point club, tied a season high with four steals to lead NU's strong defensive effort. She finished with eight points.
Those numbers allowed NU to offset a 10-for-24 shooting performance from three-point range by Iowa State that included a 4-for-6 effort from Bolte. The Cyclones also outrebounded NU 34-24, the biggest margin by a Husker opponent this season. In the first meeting of the Big 12 campaign in Ames, Nebraska became the first team this season to outrebound the Cyclones.
While ISU was 10-of-24 from beyond the arc, the Cyclones were just 8-for-20 inside the arc.
Montgomery sparked a 9-0 run over the final five minutes of the first half to turn a one-point deficit into a 27-19 halftime lead. Montgomery, who led all scorers with 11 first-half points, scored nine points in the final 5:26 of the half, including NU's final seven points. Montgomery hit 4-of-6 shots from the field and all three of her free throws in the opening period.
Montgomery was the only Husker to hit more than one first-half field goal, as Iowa State held NU to its lowest first-half point total in 11 Big 12 Conference games. The Huskers hit just 9-of-23 shots from the field, including just 1-of-9 three-pointers, while connecting on 8-of-9 free throws.
Nebraska's defense was even better in the first half, as Iowa State became the sixth opponent to score 20 or fewer first-half points against the Huskers. ISU hit just 7-of-23 shots from the field, including 3-of-10 three-pointers, and both of its free throw attempts. The Cyclones dominated the glass, outrebounding NU 20-11, but the Huskers forced 11 turnovers while committing just four miscues of their own.
Nebraska extended its lead to double digits with two Montgomery free throws in the opening minute of the second half, but Iowa State produced a 12-4 surge to trim the lead to 33-31 with 13:40. Moore, who scored NU's four points during ISU's push, buried her second three of the night to extend NU's advantage to 36-31 with 13:18 to play.
After a Griffin free throw, a Bolte three trimmed NU's lead back to 37-34 before two more free throws by Griffin and another three-pointer by Moore, extended the Husker edge to 42-34 with 10:20 left. Bolte then connected again, before Griffin finished just her second field goal of the night and Moore connected on her career-best fourth three to extend the Husker edge back to 10 at 47-37 with 7:58 left.
The Huskers were able to push the lead to 12 on two occassions, before Griffin and Moore hit free throws down the stretch to seal NU's record-breaking victory.
Griffin, who scored nine of her 11 points in the final 13 minutes, credited her teammates for making the plays to win the game.
"Lindsey came up huge tonight, and so was Cory," Griffin said. "The shots that Lindsey made in the second half were big and Cory's run to end the first half gave us a major lift. The defense by our guards, with Vonnie, Kala (Kuhlmann) and Tiny (Nicole Neals) was great all night long, and took Iowa State of what they wanted to do."
Nebraska continues its two-game Big 12 North home stand by playing host to Colorado on Saturday at the Devaney Center. Tip-off against the Buffaloes is set for 1:05 p.m., with free live audio from the Husker Sports Network on Huskers.com. Live premium video will also be available to HuskersNside subscribers.
Official Basketball Box Score
Iowa State vs Nebraska
02/17/10 7:05 p.m. at Bob Devaney Sports Center- Lincoln, Neb.
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VISITORS: Iowa State 19-5, 7-4
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
33 Poppens, Chelsea.... f 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 6 7 4 0 0 2 0 0 22
55 Prins, Anna......... c 3-6 1-2 2-2 2 8 10 2 9 1 3 0 1 31
02 Williams, Whitney... g 2-6 2-6 0-0 0 1 1 2 6 2 1 0 0 22
10 Stuckey, Denae...... g 1-9 1-5 0-0 3 2 5 5 3 3 7 1 2 36
11 Bolte, Kelsey....... g 5-10 4-6 1-1 0 1 1 3 15 0 3 0 1 31
12 Schroll, Jessica.... 6-11 1-3 1-2 1 1 2 2 14 4 3 0 1 30
23 Cole, Chassidy...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 1 0 0 2 0 0 6
42 Zimmerman, Amanda... 1-2 1-2 0-0 1 2 3 2 3 1 2 1 0 22
TEAM................ 1 2 3 1
Totals.............. 18-44 10-24 4-5 9 25 34 21 50 11 24 2 5 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 7-23 30.4% 2nd Half: 11-21 52.4% Game: 40.9% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-10 30.0% 2nd Half: 7-14 50.0% Game: 41.7% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 2-2 100 % 2nd Half: 2-3 66.7% Game: 80.0% 1
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HOME TEAM: Nebraska 24-0, 11-0
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 2-4 0-1 7-10 5 6 11 2 11 1 3 0 1 29
40 Montgomery, Cory.... f 5-11 1-4 5-5 1 1 2 1 16 0 1 0 1 32
00 Moore, Lindsey...... g 6-11 4-7 2-4 0 0 0 1 18 2 2 0 1 32
22 Turner, Yvonne...... g 3-10 0-6 2-2 0 3 3 1 8 3 1 0 4 31
24 Kelley, Dominique... g 0-4 0-1 3-4 0 3 3 0 3 2 1 0 1 28
11 Neals, Nicole....... 0-3 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 14
12 Reeves, Layne....... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
13 Kuhlmann, Kala...... 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 2 0 1 0 0 13
35 Periago, Jessica.... 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 10
44 Redmon, Catheryn.... 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 3 2 0 0 0 0 9
TEAM................ 1 3 4
Totals.............. 18-47 5-22 19-25 7 17 24 9 60 9 10 0 9 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 9-23 39.1% 2nd Half: 9-24 37.5% Game: 38.3% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-9 11.1% 2nd Half: 4-13 30.8% Game: 22.7% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 8-9 88.9% 2nd Half: 11-16 68.8% Game: 76.0% 3
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Officials: June Courteau, Dee Kantner, Clarke Stevens
Technical fouls: Iowa State-None. Nebraska-None.
Attendance: 10988
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Iowa State.................... 19 31 - 50
Nebraska...................... 27 33 - 60