Hester finds a home in NU's lineup
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BY CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — You draw comfort from the inside from the fact that’s where your team’s two most-experienced players, Danielle Page and Kelsey Griffin, hang out.
On the perimeter, you need to be patient with new starters, sophomore Vonnie Turner and freshman Dominique Kelley. But considering they’d been two of the most visible high school players in the state, and that they’re familiar with one another’s games after years of club team competition, you’re sure they’ll click.
But what about your fifth starter — that hard-to-find, athletic wing who needs to be both quick and physical in order to handle a variety of defensive assignments and keep opponents from cheating inside? You wind up with a kid from a California junior college who was there primarily because she didn’t like the scene during her one season at Texas-El Paso.
1. Don’t wait for the first media timeout to get ‘game legs.’
Most noticeable in their guard play, the Huskers stumbled out of the gate against Kansas last week in the Big 12 Tournament and never got untracked. Same thing happened during February losses at Texas Tech and Kansas.
“I don’t think we’ll play (timid), I really don’t,” coach Connie Yori said. “We’ve talked about it a lot. We’ve played in enough environments that we shouldn’t be nervous. That’s the last thing we should be when you play in the Big 12 in front of the biggest crowds in the country.”
2. Avoid getting into a half- or quarter-court game.
Big 12 opponents learned that getting back on defense against the Huskers was probably more important than offensive rebounding, because NU is an entirely different monster when it can get out and run. The same holds true when Vonnie Turner and Dominique Kelley are spearheading full-court pressure. The last thing NU wants today is to let Xavier set up and throw it inside to 6-foot-6 and 6-5 Ta’Shia Phillips and Amber Harris.
“I know it’s going to be a real challenge for us to try and match up,” Xavier coach Kevin McGuff said. “If they get up in the 70s (points), that’d be hard for us to stay with at that point.”
Added Kelley, “We’re not playing somebody who knows all the sets we run and that we’re a run-and-gun, kind of pressure team, so we’re pretty excited.”
3. Don’t assume Xavier is going to be awed by the fact that you come from a league rated as the toughest nationally.
The lower-seeded Musketeers (although barely, since they’re No. 9 and Nebraska is No. 8) are 14-2 in their last 16 games, and in their most recent battles, knocked off 13th-ranked George Washington and Temple, the team that eliminated the Huskers from last year’s NCAA tourney.
“Coach was telling us the other day we didn’t come this far just to go to the NCAA Tournament and lose one game and come back,” Turner said. “We’ve had enough time to regroup and rethink things, so I think we’ll come ready to play.”
Yeah, you’re crossing your fingers on that one.
No longer.
Tay Hester has quietly gone about filling the no-nonsense, sometimes unappreciated role Connie Yori figured was crucial for her Nebraska women’s basketball team to get back to the NCAA Tournament.
“First of all, Tay’s really smart in terms of understanding the game,” said Yori, whose team will face Xavier in an NCAA regional opener here today at 11 a.m. “We’d like to see her skill level improve, but in terms of her understanding what needs to be done, how to defend certain sets, she’s one of our smarter players. And that comes with experience.”
NU assistant Tory Verdi found the 5-foot-10 Hester at Mt. San Antonio College, where she was MVP at the California State Junior College Championships after averaging 14.3 points and 5.7 rebounds to help her team win the title last season. The Moreno Valley, Calif., native ended up back in her home state after deciding to leave UTEP, where, as a freshman, she’d started eight games and averaged 4.7 points and 4.1 rebounds.
This year, the Miners earned their first NCAA Tournament bid, so it could be easy for Hester to second-guess herself. Then again, she began her Husker career by producing 13 points and 12 rebounds in a win against her former school, becoming the first wing at NU in four seasons to post a double-double. And she’s gone on to start every game this year.
So, yes, Hester has found a home complementing Griffin, a-time first-team All-Big 12 Conference pick; Page, who received league honorable mention; and Turner, a member of the Big 12 all-defensive team.
Hester says she goes into each game looking to build off her “defense and rebounding. Every night I’m probably on the best 2 guard, or beside the point guard, so I just try to not let them get the ...”
She works to make it difficult for them to get good looks.
Hester averages a modest 6.4 points (along with 4.2 rebounds. She’s also third on the team with 65 assists and 32 steals). But some of her best offensive efforts have come against teams that made the NCAA field.
She scored a career-high 14 points, with four assists, at Ohio State, had 10 points and six rebounds at Baylor, 10 points and five boards at Oklahoma, and had a career-high six assists with no turnovers in a home win against Iowa State. Against Robert Morris, she had 11 points and six rebounds.
“She’s a different player,” Griffin said. “Not only is she a hard worker, she bring a physicality that we don’t really have in the guards. To have a slasher like that and someone who rebounds well ... and now she’s screening and finding people a lot better, she’s been key.”
Like a fifth wheel is to a semi-truck — and Hester can’t wait to getting rolling today.
“I’m excited about it,” she said of her first NCAA Tournament game. “(Back) in Nebraska practicing, it’s like we’ve got another (regular) opponent, (but) we’re really in the NCAA Tournament. We’ve got to go in and get that win.”
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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