Basketball falls to Nebraska
Published Jan. 23, 2007
When the smooth jump shot of Nebraska senior Kiera Hardy fell at the first-half buzzer to give her team a 19-point lead, it capped a 12-0 run that buried the Missouri women's basketball team too deep to recover.
"That last shot in the first half took a lot out of us," MU senior Tiffany Brooks said.
Despite MU's best efforts, including cutting the deficit to six twice with less than three minutes left, the Tigers never got out of the hole and fell at home on Saturday night, 76-66. Since ending the non-conference schedule 12-1 with the only loss to No. 11 Stanford, the Tigers are 1-5 in the Big 12.
"Nebraska plays well together," coach Cindy Stein said. "We didn't match that in the first half. Our job is to make sure that doesn't happen anymore."
Senior forward Chelsea Aubry led the Huskers (16-3, 4-1) with a career-high 26 points. After the game, she figured her time had come.
"I guess I was just due," Aubry said. "I thought my match-up at forward was good, and it worked out."
Missouri (13-5, 1-5 Big 12) did make a strong charge late in the game, led by senior center EeTisha Riddle. Riddle had six straight points to bring MU to within six at 72-66 with 1:26 left.
Riddle ended the night with 22 points and 12 rebounds — her fourth consecutive double-double. Sixteen of her points came in the second half, a change she said came due to her refocusing.
"I was thinking at halftime about how badly I was getting beat in the first half," she said.
Riddle's play earned praise from Nebraska coach Connie Yori.
"She's so good at finding open shooters when doubled and scoring when singled," she said. "Riddle did a good job of that tonight."
After Riddle's 22, the Tiger offense was led by senior Carlynn Savant, who had 11 points. Brooks, who is still hampered by a right knee injury, scored 10 points in 33 minutes off the bench.
But in the first half, Brooks said the Huskers were beating the Tigers as a whole because they pressured and forced MU to run.
"Their transition threw us for a loop," she said. "Having to run took away our legs, and we were missing a lot of easy shots."
MU shot just 31 percent in the first half while the Huskers connected 65 percent of the time, including hitting four of five 3-point attempts.
"That killed us," Brooks said. "We shouldn't have had to battle back from down 20."
But the Tigers tried hard, inching back thanks to a 10-0 run in the middle of the second half that cut the deficit to 63-51. The Huskers answered by going on a 7-3 run to go up 16 with less than six minutes left.
"Missouri made a huge run," Yori said. "But we stayed composed enough to win."
The Tigers are off until Sunday when they will play host to the Colorado Buffaloes. Stein said her team needs to work on sealing off the weak side of the basket.
"Our weak side help was non-existent tonight," Stein said. "We need to work on that and tweak some other things to get it rolling again."