Griffin leads way past Buffs
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By CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star
No need to go into a detailed breakdown of how the Nebraska women’s basketball team managed to hold off Colorado 63-55 in the Devaney Sports Center on Sunday afternoon.
Heck, even Connie Yori would tell you the outcome pretty much boiled down to the fact that the Huskers’ All-Big 12 Conference forward Kelsey Griffin was better than the Buffaloes’ similarly decorated Jackie McFarland.
“What it looked like to me was, ‘I’m going to do this for us. I’m going to get it done,’” Yori said of her 6-foot-2 junior, who matched her season-high of 26 points and pulled down 10 rebounds for her fifth double-double in Big 12 Conference action. “The let’s-put-the-team-on-the-shoulders mentality was really a difference for us.”
The way Nebraska defended on Sunday, particularly from three-point range, where CU went just 2-for-11, the Buffaloes needed a similar performance from their No. 3 all-time scorer. But the Huskers made the 6-3 senior work for every one of her 13 points while beating CU for a seventh straight time.
And that defensive effort was no fluke.
Only once in those games has McFarland scored more than 13 points. And twice she’s been held to single digits. If that doesn’t impress you, consider that since the start of her sophomore season McFarland has scored in double figures in 84 of 90 games.
“Year in and year out, they have one of the deepest post lineups in the conference, maybe in the country,” McFarland said. “It’s a matter of going against not just one of them, but two in double coverage. And they’ve always got fresh bodies.”
Sunday’s outcome let Nebraska improve to 19-10 overall and 8-7 in the Big 12. The Huskers play host to Iowa State on Wednesday trying to finish the regular season with a winning league record and in sixth place. A loss would drop them into a tie for sixth with the Cyclones.
Either way, Nebraska would appear to be in good shape to make the NCAA Tournament a second straight season.
On Sunday, NU never trailed but never had it easy, either.
After trailing by 11 with 7:08 to play, Colorado pulled to 58-53 on a basket by Brittany Spears with 1:52 left. CU then had chances to pull closer on its next two possessions, but senior forward Danielle Page blocked a shot by Spears and then Whitney Houston missed on a drive before Nebraska guard Vonnie Turner hit two free throws to push the lead to seven with 39.6 seconds remaining.
“I had just turned it over, made a really dumb pass to ‘Nique’ (Dominique Kelley) in the corner, and so it was one of those things, ‘I can’t believe I made that pass, I need to do something to rectify it,’” Page said of her second block of the game.
Griffin had plenty of those reassuring moments en route to lighting up the Buffaloes for the second time this season (she had 25 in a 90-81 win at CU on Feb. 6).
After Kara Richards hit a pair of free throws to draw the Buffs to 43-37, Griffin hit one from the foul line, then scored on a drive to her right on the next possession, hit Page with a fast-break assist on the next and then put back an offensive rebound on the next to leave NU ahead 50-39.
“They played us a lot of zone and she did a good job of finding gaps in the zone and attacking,” Yori said. “I think sometimes against zones it’s easy for post players to get lost, but I thought she got the ball in areas where she could catch it and score. She was very aggressive.”
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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