Nebraska Completes Season Sweep of Colorado
LINCOLN, Neb. - Jessica Gerhart had a career-high 22 points to lead Nebraska to a 70-54 win over Colorado in Big 12 Conference action Saturday night at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
Colorado (6-14, 1-7 Big 12) dropped its fifth in a row and 12th straight on the road, tying a school record for consecutive road losses first set in 1999-2000. Nebraska (11-7, 3-4 Big 12) snapped its own four-game losing streak and swept the season series from Buffaloes for the first time since the 1983-84 season.
The Huskers, who had shot just 38 percent during their four-game skid, found their groove on Saturday shooting 51 percent for the game. Gerhart was 10-of-13 from the field while front-court mate Kelsey Griffin was 5-of-8 from the field with 14 points.
Nebraska utilized a full-court press early, forcing five Colorado turnovers in the first nine minutes. The Huskers turned those into good offensive opportunities hitting six nine of their first 15 shots to build a 22-9 lead. Colorado turned the ball over 23 times in the game resulting in 24 Nebraska points while the Buffaloes scored just two points off of 11 turnovers.
"They put the same kind of full-court pressure on us in the first five minutes (that Texas A&M did Tuesday) and I thought that really set the tone for us," CU head coach Kathy McConnell-Miller said. "We struggled to get the ball over the time line, we struggled to get into any of our sets and run them effectively, and when we did get it over we had very limited time to do anything with our offense."
Colorado battled to within 10 at 32-22 on a Lauren Lubin 3-pointer with 4:10 left in the half, but the Buffaloes missed their last five shots of the half and had three turnovers as NU led 37-22 at the break..
CU sophomore Jackie McFarland just missed a double-double with 19 points and nine rebounds. Sophomore guard Yari Escalera scored in double-digits for the second-straight outing with 13 points off the bench while tying career-highs with three 3-point field goals and seven rebounds.
Two of the most prolific scorers in the Big 12 were held in check, one for each team. NU junior Kiera Hardy, who entered the game averaging 19.7 points during Big 12 contests, scored just 12 and all but three of those points came in the latter part of the second half when Nebraska had already built a double-digit lead. For Colorado, junior Jasmina Ilic, who scored a league season-high 36 points in the first meeting between the two teams on Jan. 4, was held to eight points on 3-of-9 shooting.
Whitney Law had eight points and six rebounds for the Buffaloes. Colorado held a 36-31 edge in rebounds.
Colorado will continue Big 12 road action of Tuesday, Feb. 1, against the University of Kansas at 6 p.m. MST in Lawrence, Kan.