NU women open with win
digg it!
Facebook
del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit
By CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Kelsey Griffin caught one look at Xavier’s bulky 6-foot-6 center Ta’Shia Phillips and long, lean 6-5 forward Amber Harris, and thought about all the work she and her Nebraska teammates had put into conditioning and shooting.
Sure, the two-time all-Big 12 Conference junior forward recognized she and teammate Danielle Page would have to muscle up some on the low block while giving away considerable size. But what Griffin really understood was how the Huskers would have to try and turn Sunday’s NCAA Tournament opener into a track meet and also find their midrange shooting touch.
They did that almost from the start, racing to a double-digit lead in the first four minutes before needing to show their endurance while hanging on for a 61-58 victory in the Comcast Center.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — It took Connie Yori barely a minute into Sunday's game to determine her team's frame of mind for Xavier.
After the Huskers controlled the opening tip, Danielle Page hit a three-pointer. NU then caused a turnover before Tay Hester hit a three on the third shot of that possession, leaving the Musketeers calling a timeout with 18:57 left in the first half.
"Our energy was great. Our focus was great. And we didn't play scared," Yori said. "We played with a confidence, and any time you hit your first couple shots there’s that feeling 'OK, we’re going to beat them.' Getting a good start was really key for the game."
BIG 12 RULES: Nebraska was banking on its battles in the Big 12, a league ranked as the nation’s toughest, to be the ultimate preparation for the NCAA Tournament.
Sure enough, Big 12 teams went 8-0 in the opening round. What's more, nine of the 12 opponents the Huskers faced in the regular season who made the NCAA field were victorious this weekend.
"Playing against the level of competition that we see day in and day out definitely was a factor," Yori said.
AND THE WINNER IS ... : During her 26-point outing, Kelsey Griffin left her teammates with multiple choices for best play of the game.
"The and-one. That was nice," Page said of the three-point play Griffin produced off a burst to her left against Amber Harris that gave the Huskers a 36-22 lead with 17:58 to play.
"I like the jab step jumper. That was pretty sweet," Cory Montgomery said of another second-half basket Griffin converted.
OK, but what about the seated-positioned rebound and kick out to teammate Vonnie Turner she got when Xavier was threatening to cut into a seven-point deficit with 1:40 remaining?
That might have been Griffin's fav.
"As soon as I did that I was like 'They’re going to steal it and get a layup'" she said. "And then I was like, 'Oh, (Vonnie) got it.' That was so unbelievable."
THE DEFENSE RESTS ITS CASE: Nebraska's 30-20 halftime lead represented the fifth time this season the Huskers held an opponent to 20 or fewer points in the opening 20 minutes.
"I don't know what it was, but we weren't playing at the level that we have played at recently," said Xavier coach Kevin McGuff, whose club made things interesting down the stretch before losing for just the third time in 17 games. "I looked at the last seven minutes and how we played (then) and think that's somewhat reflective of what we've done recently. Unfortunately, we just couldn't do that for 40 minutes."
Xavier was 18-0 when having three players score in double figures. On Sunday, that perfect mark nearly came to an end, as the Musketeers got 19 from Jerri Taylor, 14 from Harris and . . . nine from Ta'Shia Phillips. It was the first time in 10 games that the Atlantic 10 Conference Rookie of the Year, who grabbed 16 rebounds despite being limited to seven first-half minutes due to foul trouble, did not score in double figures.
AT THE BUZZER: Sunday's outcome was Nebraska's first win in the three games it played that were decided by three or fewer points. The Huskers had lost to Kansas State 77-75 and Kansas 62-61.
* NU's last win in the NCAA Tournament came against New Mexico in 1998. Yori had been 0-3 in the event, losing twice when she was at Creighton and with the Huskers last year.
* Montgomery's 12-point effort was her first in double digits in eight games.
* Page's five blocks brought her single-season school record total to 76. She's had eight games in her career with at least five blocks.
* And if you thought Xavier's freshman point guard Special Jennings had a unique name ... her sisters are Wonderful and Treasure.
— Curt McKeever
“I was happy that my jumper was on,” said Griffin after hitting 10 of 17 shots en route to matching her season high of 26 points. “That’s the first time, probably since high school, that I’ve been able to shoot like that. I prefer to play with my back to the basket, but Xavier had some larger girls in there, so I knew that I may have to take my game outside.”
Fueled by Griffin, junior wing Tay Hester’s 13 points (her first double-digit performance in 12 games and one off her career high) and 12 from sophomore forward Cory Montgomery, Nebraska advanced in the NCAA Tournament for only the third time in school history. The Huskers (21-11) will now face Maryland (31-3), the No. 1 seed in the Spokane Regional, on its home court at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Terrapins pulled away from feisty Coppin State in the final 10 minutes to win 80-66.
While the 2006 national champions weren’t tickled over being given a tussle by a No. 16 seed, NU coach Connie Yori was ecstatic that her team earned a crack at the perennial power.
“Absolutely,” she said when asked whether the Huskers would celebrate the outcome. “How many wins do we have in the NCAA Tournament? Men’s and women’s basketball have three total in the history of our program — you’ve got to get excited.
“Yeah, we’ve got a lot of work to do preparing for Maryland, but you can book in for an all-nighter in those situations.”
On Sunday, her club had the look of one set for a 40-minute effort.
With senior forward Danielle Page hitting a three-pointer on the game’s first possession — her only make in 10 first-half attempts — Nebraska broke to a 13-2 lead with only 3:41 running off the clock.
Hester, in her first NCAA game, also ignited her performance during that stretch by hitting just her fifth three-pointer of the season. Entering the game with a 6.4-point average, she turned up her aggression in the up-tempo pace and sank 4-of-6 first-half shots while scoring nine to help NU take a 30-20 lead into the break.
“I just know my strengths and, yeah, I can drive to the hole, but I’d rather drive when there’s three defenders than five,” the 5-10 Hester said. “In transition, I knew if they weren’t going to match up, then I had to run through.”
Considering Nebraska was 17-0 this season when holding a halftime edge, the Huskers were right where they wanted to be against the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament champions.
Nebraska eventually pushed its lead to 15 points. Then, after the Musketeers got to within eight on a jumper by Harris with 11:35 left, Montgomery canned back-to-back 17-footers.
NU appeared to be headed for an uneventful ending after a turnaround jumper by Griffin at the 4:49 mark left Nebraska up by 12. But the Huskers then went scoreless until Griffin hit a free throw with 47.2 seconds to go to make it 57-52.
After Xavier’s Tudy Reed missed a three-pointer, Hester was fouled on the rebound and sank a pair of free throws to make it a seven-point game. But the Musketeers (24-9) got a three-pointer from Jerri Taylor and, after Dominque Kelley got behind the press for a layup, Harris hit another deep three to make it a three-point game with 4.7 seconds left.
Following a timeout, Nebraska was able to inbound the ball to Griffin, who called time after being surrounded with 1.3 seconds to play. The Huskers came out of that to find Kelley near midcourt with a pass that allowed them to run out the clock.
“It was a really contradictory matchup,” Yori said. “We want to run, they want to play quarter-court, so it was really like who could control the game with their pace. And I felt like we did for a good portion.”
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
Most Commented news