Husker 'D' too much for A&M
Gary Blair was stuck talking about ‘D’s’ after watching Nebraska race past his 21st-ranked Texas A&M women’s basketball team 73-60 at the Devaney Sports Center on Wednesday night.
The first one he noted was the ‘D’ he got in his editing class when he was a student at Texas Tech — a fact he offered before throwing out an editorial opinion that the Huskers deserved about 16 column inches to the Aggies’ one for their performance Wednesday.
And that newspaper lingo came about primarily because of a ‘D’ that NU utilized while harassing A&M into a season-high 30 turnovers.
While it’s true that opponents are regularly having a dickens of a time handling Nebraska’s full-court pressure, consider that the Aggies feature two guards — Takia Starks and A’Quonesia Franklin — who were preseason All-Big 12 Conference picks.
“We had a lot of point guard problems today and a lot of that was because of point guard defense,” Blair said. “It was outstanding what they were doing.
“Nebraska’s known for their offense and not their defense. It’s the best I’ve seen Nebraska on defense in the five years I’ve played (them), or seen film.”
Sharing the lead role in that effort were sophomore Vonnie Turner and freshman Dominique Kelley. Turner, the Big 12’s steals leader, added six more to her total. And with Kelley helping out, the two caused A&M point guard Franklin to have a nightmarish six-turnover, one-assist night.
“It starts with our ‘hounds,’” Nebraska forward Kelsey Griffin said of Turner and Kelley. “You see them working, pressuring the ball so hard, that gives us an opportunity to get in our (defensive) spots.”
And that had Blair’s team in a spastic mode throughout the game.
Though A&M, the preseason choice to win the Big 12, was hanging tough, leading 23-22 after Sydney Colson scored off a steal, Nebraska turned up its defense and ended the first half with a 20-6 run. Griffin, who started it, had six of her 16 points in the spurt, while senior forward Danielle Page got six of her game-high 25.
A&M, which returned its top six players from a team that shared last year’s Big 12 regular-season crown, regrouped during the break and made a strong enough push to get to 55-50 on a basket by Franklin with 9:06 remaining in the game.
Less than three minutes later, it was 62-50 and the Aggies had lost forwards Danielle Gant and Patrice Reado to fouls. The Huskers then put an exclamation point to their fourth win in five league games, and 15th in 19 overall, by scoring nine of the next 11 points.
During NU’s 16-2 spurt, A&M went 0-for-5 from the field, missed a free throw and committed five turnovers. And after Morenike Atunrase scored on a drive, the Aggies missed three more field goals, two foul shots and had another turnover before scoring again.
“Give them credit. They’ve lost four starters and their top backup guard (to graduation),” Blair said of the Huskers. “That’s coach of the year material.”
While his club fell to 13-6 overall and 1-4 in the league, Connie Yori walked off the court with her 100th win at Nebraska.
Could the Huskers possibly have a celebratory cake waiting in the locker room for their sixth-year coach?
Not so fast with that notion, said Page.
“One hundred candles are hard to come by,” she said. “Have you ever tried to light 100 candles?”
Well, maybe, if Nebraska wins at sixth-ranked Baylor on Saturday night?
OK, so that truly would be icing on the cake.
“We’ve played a really difficult stretch, and Saturday is not going to be any easier,” Yori said. “But we have a good start and we just need to keep playing with energy. It’s fun to coach kids who want to work hard.”
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
The first one he noted was the ‘D’ he got in his editing class when he was a student at Texas Tech — a fact he offered before throwing out an editorial opinion that the Huskers deserved about 16 column inches to the Aggies’ one for their performance Wednesday.
And that newspaper lingo came about primarily because of a ‘D’ that NU utilized while harassing A&M into a season-high 30 turnovers.
While it’s true that opponents are regularly having a dickens of a time handling Nebraska’s full-court pressure, consider that the Aggies feature two guards — Takia Starks and A’Quonesia Franklin — who were preseason All-Big 12 Conference picks.
“We had a lot of point guard problems today and a lot of that was because of point guard defense,” Blair said. “It was outstanding what they were doing.
“Nebraska’s known for their offense and not their defense. It’s the best I’ve seen Nebraska on defense in the five years I’ve played (them), or seen film.”
Sharing the lead role in that effort were sophomore Vonnie Turner and freshman Dominique Kelley. Turner, the Big 12’s steals leader, added six more to her total. And with Kelley helping out, the two caused A&M point guard Franklin to have a nightmarish six-turnover, one-assist night.
“It starts with our ‘hounds,’” Nebraska forward Kelsey Griffin said of Turner and Kelley. “You see them working, pressuring the ball so hard, that gives us an opportunity to get in our (defensive) spots.”
And that had Blair’s team in a spastic mode throughout the game.
Though A&M, the preseason choice to win the Big 12, was hanging tough, leading 23-22 after Sydney Colson scored off a steal, Nebraska turned up its defense and ended the first half with a 20-6 run. Griffin, who started it, had six of her 16 points in the spurt, while senior forward Danielle Page got six of her game-high 25.
A&M, which returned its top six players from a team that shared last year’s Big 12 regular-season crown, regrouped during the break and made a strong enough push to get to 55-50 on a basket by Franklin with 9:06 remaining in the game.
Less than three minutes later, it was 62-50 and the Aggies had lost forwards Danielle Gant and Patrice Reado to fouls. The Huskers then put an exclamation point to their fourth win in five league games, and 15th in 19 overall, by scoring nine of the next 11 points.
During NU’s 16-2 spurt, A&M went 0-for-5 from the field, missed a free throw and committed five turnovers. And after Morenike Atunrase scored on a drive, the Aggies missed three more field goals, two foul shots and had another turnover before scoring again.
“Give them credit. They’ve lost four starters and their top backup guard (to graduation),” Blair said of the Huskers. “That’s coach of the year material.”
While his club fell to 13-6 overall and 1-4 in the league, Connie Yori walked off the court with her 100th win at Nebraska.
Could the Huskers possibly have a celebratory cake waiting in the locker room for their sixth-year coach?
Not so fast with that notion, said Page.
“One hundred candles are hard to come by,” she said. “Have you ever tried to light 100 candles?”
Well, maybe, if Nebraska wins at sixth-ranked Baylor on Saturday night?
OK, so that truly would be icing on the cake.
“We’ve played a really difficult stretch, and Saturday is not going to be any easier,” Yori said. “But we have a good start and we just need to keep playing with energy. It’s fun to coach kids who want to work hard.”
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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