The lone senior on the 1983-84 Husker squad, Kelli Benson enjoyed a solid four-year career as a Husker. Benson finished her career at No. 2 all-time on NU's field goal percentage list by shooting a strong 51.1 percent in her four seasons. As a senior, she hit 58.8 percent of her attempts, after knocking down 58.7 percent of her shots as a junior in 1982-83.
During her career, Benson scored 836 points, pulled down 329 rebounds and dished out 282 assists. She also grabbed 171 steals. Her assist and steal totals rank just outside of Nebraska's current top-10 lists, while she still ranks among NU's all-time top 10 in field goal percentage. She closed her career averaging 7.1 points and 2.8 rebounds per game with 87 starts in 118 career games.
As a senior, Benson pumped in 7.7 points and 3.0 rebounds per game while dishing out 2.7 assists per contest. That followed a junior season in which she averaged 7.1 points and a career-best 3.1 rebounds per game. As a sophomore, Benson averaged 6.2 points and 2.5 rebounds per game, after a strong freshman campaign when she averaged 7.4 points, 2.7 rebounds, 2.4 assists and a career-best 2.0 steals per contest.
Benson was also an outstanding student at Nebraska, posting better than a 3.70 grade-point average during her academic career as a physical education major.
Benson was the winner of the Eleanor Snell Award for outstanding sportsmanship, leadership and skill in basketball. She was an All-Nebraska performer in basketball, volleyball and track at Grand Island High School. She won the Class A state high jump title in 1979 and was chosen as the Nebraska High School Female Athlete of the Year in 1980.
The daughter of Elden and Janet Benson, Kelli was born May 1, 1962.
Benson's Career Statistics
Year
G-GS
FG-FGA
Pct.
3P-3PA
Pct.
FT-FTA
Pct.
TRB-Avg.
PF-D
A
TO
Blk
ST
Pts-Avg.
1980-81 31 82-201 .408 NA NA 66-104 .635 83-2.778
75
111
3
61
230-7.41981-82 31 79-158 .500 NA NA 33-45 .733 76-2.570
63
116
1
40
191-6.21982-83 28 81-138 .587 NA NA 37-53 .698 86-3.160
69
63
2
35
199-7.11983-84 28 90-153 .588 NA NA 36-46 .782 84-3.069-2
75
74 3 35 216-7.7Career
118-87
332-650
.511
NA
NA
172-248
.694
329-2.8
277
282
364
9
171
836-7.1