Lincoln - Nebraska produced the largest comeback in Coach Connie Yori's 14 seasons with the Huskers, rallying from 21 points down late in the second quarter for a 65-63 win over in-state rival Creighton on Sunday at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
The Huskers, who improved to 6-1 on the season, trailed 41-20 with with just over five minutes left in the first half before coming all the way back to take the lead on Rachel Theriot's three-pointer from the left wing with 1:35 left. Theriot's second three of the game put the Huskers up 64-62. It was Nebraska's first lead since 2-0 to start the game.
Theriot sealed the win with a free throw with eight seconds left to finish with 17 points and a game-high eight assists. She did all of her scoring in the final 20:01 of game action, including a buzzer-beating three from 25-feet on the right wing to close the first half and send the Huskers to halftime down 43-32.
Creighton, who slipped to 4-4, raced to a 33-16 lead at the end of the first quarter by hitting eight of its first nine three-point attempts in the first 10 minutes. The Bluejays went 1-for-15 from beyond the arc the rest of the way.
CU freshman Audrey Faber did the most damage in the first quarter and the game, scoring 13 of her game-high 22 points in the opening period. The 6-2 forward added five rebounds, six assists, six blocked shots and two steals. She hit 9-of-13 shots from the floor, including 4-of-5 threes in the game.
Nebraska answered with 19 points, seven rebounds and three assists from 6-4 freshman forward Jessica Shepard. The Huskers also got 13 points, three rebounds and two assists from sophomore guard Natalie Romeo, including a driving layup to cut the margin to 62-61 with 3:02 left.
Nebraska's season-high crowd of 6,056 erupted on each big shot in the fourth quarter, while exhorting the Big Red possession after possession on the defensive end.
"We probably don't win that game without that crowd today," Yori said. "They were unbelievable. I told our team that in the locker room and they all agreed. They know how much of an impact our fans can have when they get into a game like that. There were a few times in that fourth quarter when the building sounded like it was sold out."
Junior Allie Havers, who went 3-for-3 from the floor and 2-for-2 at the line, added eight huge points off the bench to help start NU's rally in the first half. She added four rebounds, a block and a steal. Freshman Rachel Blackburn added six points and 10 huge rebounds, including a putback with 3:45 left to trim CU's lead to 62-59.
The Huskers led 2-0 after a Shepard jumper to open the game, then watched the Jays hit six consecutive three-pointers to take an 18-8 lead with 5:14 left in the first quarter. CU then hit three two-point field goals before knocking down their seventh three to push the margin to 27-10 with 2:41 left in the first. CU's eighth three came from Faber with 1:51 left to push the edge to 20 for the first time at 30-10, before Havers scored six straight points for the Big Red. But a traditional three-point play from MC McGrory sent the Jays to the second quarter with a 33-16 lead.
Nebraska outscored the Jays 16-10 in the second quarter and 14-11 in the third quarter, before closing out the win with a 19-9 edge in the fourth quarter.
For the game, the team statistics were eerily similar. The Huskers hit 48.1 percent (26-54) of their shots from the floor, while Creighton went 26-of-55 (.473). Both teams committed nine turnovers, but the Big Red outrebounded the Bluejays, 37-24. Creighton hit 9-of-24 threes (.375) while NU went 3-for-6, but the Huskers outscored CU, 10-2, at the free throw line. The Huskers committed a season-low six fouls, while Creighton was whistled for 12.
Nebraska concludes its three-game home stand on Tuesday night when the Huskers take on Evansville. Tip-off between the Big Red and Purple Aces is set for 7 p.m., with tickets available now at Huskers.com.
Official Basketball Box Score
Official Basketball Box Score Creighton vs Nebraska 12/06/15 2:06 p.m. at Pinnacle Bank Arena (Lincoln, Neb.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Creighton 4-4 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 11 NORBY, Bailey....... f 4-6 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 2 8 0 0 0 1 24 45 FABER, Audrey....... f 9-13 4-5 0-2 1 4 5 3 22 6 2 6 2 35 01 OWENS, Jade......... g 3-9 1-4 0-0 0 2 2 0 7 5 3 0 1 29 03 MCGRORY, MC......... g 5-9 1-3 2-3 2 3 5 1 13 2 0 0 0 32 14 LAMBERTY, Sydney.... g 1-6 0-4 0-0 1 3 4 0 2 1 1 0 0 32 12 WORKS, Lauren....... 1-6 1-6 0-0 0 1 1 2 3 1 0 0 0 22 20 LEYTEM, Tessa....... 2-3 2-2 0-0 0 1 1 0 6 0 0 0 1 11 33 BROWN, Kylie........ 1-3 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 4 2 0 0 1 0 11 40 GREENE, Ali......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 TEAM................ 1 1 2 3 Totals.............. 26-55 9-24 2-5 6 18 24 12 63 15 9 7 5 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 17-31 54.8% 2nd Half: 9-24 37.5% Game: 47.3% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 8-13 61.5% 2nd Half: 1-11 9.1% Game: 37.5% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 1-1 100 % 2nd Half: 1-4 25.0% Game: 40.0% 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: Nebraska 6-1 TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS ## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 32 Shepard, Jessica.... f 6-18 0-1 7-12 5 2 7 0 19 3 1 0 1 30 43 Blackburn, Rachel... f 3-7 0-0 0-0 3 7 10 2 6 1 1 0 1 28 04 Clark, Kyndal....... g 0-2 0-1 0-0 1 1 2 1 0 2 1 0 1 28 05 Romeo, Natalie...... g 6-8 1-1 0-0 0 3 3 2 13 2 3 0 0 40 33 Theriot, Rachel..... g 7-12 2-2 1-2 0 4 4 0 17 8 1 0 0 40 22 Havers, Allie....... 3-3 0-0 2-2 2 2 4 1 8 0 1 1 1 13 24 Simon, Maddie....... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 31 Kalenta, Anya....... 1-3 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 9 34 Cincore, Jasmine.... 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 5 TEAM................ 1 3 4 Totals.............. 26-54 3-6 10-16 12 25 37 6 65 16 9 1 4 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 13-28 46.4% 2nd Half: 13-26 50.0% Game: 48.1% DEADB 3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-4 50.0% 2nd Half: 1-2 50.0% Game: 50.0% REBS F Throw % 1st Half: 4-8 50.0% 2nd Half: 6-8 75.0% Game: 62.5% 4
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Officials: Bob Trammell, Rod Creech, Missy Brooks Technical fouls: Creighton-None. Nebraska-None. Attendance: 6056 Score by Periods 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total Creighton..................... 33 10 11 9 - 63 Nebraska...................... 16 16 14 19 - 65