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WBB: Game #29 vs Northwestern

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Row6Seat10

Row6Seat10

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Sunday, Feb. 28, 3 p.m.

Pinnacle Bank Arena
 

 

Social Media:  twitter-bird-16x16.png@HuskersWBB facebook_icon_small.gif Nebraska Women's Basketball instagram_logo.gif Instagram

Tickets: Huskers.com

Doors Open: 1:30 p.m.
Television: BTN (Mike Wolf, Shelley Till)

Radio: Husker Sports Network (Pre-game 2:45) - (Matt Coatney, Jeff Griesch)

Sunday's Stations:

  • KRNU 90.3 FM, UNL
  • KBBK 107.3 FM, Lincoln
  • KXSP 590 AM, Omaha
  • KBRB 1400 AM, Ainsworth
  • KFMT 105.5 FM, Fremont
  • KRGI 1430 AM, Grand Island
  • KHAS 1230 AM, Hastings
  • KRVN 106.9 FM, Kearney
  • KRVN 880 AM, Lexington
  • KSWN 93.9 FM, McCook
  • KNCY 1600 AM, 105.5 FM, Nebraska City
  • KHAQ 98.5 FM, North Platte
  • KNEB 960 AM, Scottsbluff
  • KSID 1340 AM, Sidney

Free Live Audio: Huskers.com
Live Video Stream: BTN2Go.com

 

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                                                   Huskers Face Wildcats on Senior Day Sunday
 

The Nebraska women’s basketball team will close its 2015-16 regular-season home schedule by taking on Northwestern Sunday afternoon at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

 

Tip-off between the Huskers and the Wildcats is set for 3 p.m.

 

Nebraska will be looking to avenge an 85-62 loss at Northwestern in early January. Christen Inman and Nia Coffey both had 25 points for the Wildcats, while Ashley Deary had 15 points, six rebounds, eight assists and eight steals. She enters the game as the nation’s leader in steals with 126.

 

Northwestern comes to Lincoln trying to salvage a winning season. The Wildcats carry a 15-14 overall record and a 4-13 Big Ten mark with losses in five of their last six games and 10 of their last 12.

 

Northwestern opened the season with 10 consecutive victories and was flirting with the top 10 in the national rankings after finishing with a 23-9 record last season.

 

The Wildcats returned four starters from that team, including first-team All-Big Ten forward Nia Coffey and honorable-mention all-conference picks Ashley Deary and Maggie Lyon.

 

However, the loss of 2015 senior center Alex Cohen forced a position change for Coffey, moving her from the wing/stretch-four position to center. She has still been terrific, averaging 19.7 points, 10.2 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game.

 

Added to that position move, Lauren Douglas has missed the entire season with an injury. A high school teammate of Nebraska’s Jasmine Cincore at Briarcrest Christian in Tennessee, Douglas was an honorable-mention All-Big Ten choice as a sophomore before missing time last season with an injury.

 

The absences of Cohen, Douglas and 2015 senior Karly Roser have been enough to send Northwestern into a tailspin in conference play. Eight of Northwestern’s last 10 losses have been by single digits, including a double overtime loss to Minnesota, a two-point loss at Rutgers and three-point losses at Minnesota and Ohio State.

 

Nebraska leads the all-time series with Northwestern 7-5, but the Wildcats have won three consecutive meetings - all in Evanston.

 

Following Sunday’s game, the Huskers will honor seniors Rachel Theriot, Anya Kalenta and Kyndal Clark for their contributions to the program.

 

________________________________________

Probable Starters:

 

Nebraska Cornhuskers 

32 - Jessica Shepard - 6-4 - Fr. - F - 19.7 ppg, 8.8 rpg
22 - Allie Havers - 6-5 - Jr. - C - 7.8
5 - Natalie Romeo - 5-7 - So. - G - 15.7
33 - Rachel Theriot - 6-0 - Sr. - G - 10.6
34 - Jasmine Cincore - 5-10 - So. - G - 4.1
 

Northwestern Wildcats
 

10 - Nia Coffey - 6-1 - Jr. - F - 19.7 ppg, 10.2 rpg
14 - Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpanah - 6-2 - Fr. - F - 3.7
3 - Ashley Deary - 5-4 - Jr. - G - 12.4
24 - Christen Inman - 5-10 - Jr. - G - 14.3
25 - Maggie Lyon - 6-2 - Sr. - G - 16.7

_________________________________________

 

• Jessica Shepard is the first freshman in Nebraska history to reach 500 points in a season. She owns 10 20-point efforts in the last 14 contests to push her season total to 552.

 

• Jessica Shepard set the Nebraska freshman record with her 10th double-double in Wednesday’s game against Indiana.

 

• Rachel Theriot is just the third Husker in history to distribute 600 career assists. She owns 626 career assists, trailing only Lindsey Moore (699) and Meggan Yedsena (696) on the NU career list.

 

• Natalie Romeo owns the Nebraska single-season record with 92 threes this season and her 143 threes are the most ever by a Husker through her freshman and sophomore seasons combined.

 

• Natalie Romeo ranks third in the Big Ten with 92 threes, trailing Minnesota’s Rachel Banham (102) and Ohio State’s Kelsey Mitchell (99). Romeo is tied for fifth nationally in that category and tied for sixth nationally with 3.29 made threes per game.

 

• Natalie Romeo ranks eighth in Nebraska history with 143 career three-pointers and needs two triples to climb to No. 7 on Nebraska’s all time chart.

 

 

GAME NOTES:

 

 

                                                                 BEAT NORTHWESTERN!

 

 

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Row6Seat10

Row6Seat10

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Make our shots, guard the three point line, control the boards and make your free throws. Keeping our turnovers to a minimum will be key they have a point guard who is excellent at coming up with a steal due to sloppy ball handling and sloppy passes.

 

If you have a ticket to this game or even if you don't, get one, it's senior day. These seniors need to go out with a bang. Especially Rachel! Her four years with this program has been such a huge asset for the Huskers and she deserves all the accolades she gets!

Cazzie22

Cazzie22

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NU just does not match up well with Northwestern.  It would be great to get a victory but I'm doubtful.

 

Rachel Theriot has been an incredible player.  It is very sad that injuries have robbed her of much of her ability.  She is very deserving of a fine send-off today.

HUD

HUD

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y Sam McKewon / World-Herald staff writer

LINCOLN — Rachel Theriot sits just outside the interview room of Pinnacle Bank Arena. Her hands fiddle with a red foam stick that Nebraska women’s basketball fans wave during games. Her team has just lost badly to Purdue, in part because Theriot didn’t play, because the shooting pain below her left ankle was too severe.

“Running’s fine,” Theriot said. “Walking’s fine. Going in different directions? No.”

Equitable_PersonalService_300x250_Omaha.

Hours earlier, the senior leaned against a railing in the arena during warm-ups, distraught over not being able to play while coach Connie Yori patted her gently on the back. With a three-game homestand, NU had to win all three games to firm up its NCAA tournament résumé. Without Theriot, the Huskers are 0-2 in that homestand and rudderless on offense.

So a lengthy interview occurs at a low moment for one of the best passers in Husker history, and at perhaps an odd time for Theriot to reminisce about her four-year career. Theriot, who sees on a basketball court so well that her coach thinks she’s two or three steps ahead of the action, can’t easily see, on this padded chair in an empty hallway, just how good her career has been.

The painful present, in these quiet minutes, blots out the past.

“I haven’t had the greatest four years basketball-wise,” Theriot said, meaning it.

This from a four-year starter. A Big Ten tournament MVP. A two-time All-Big Ten player. An honorable mention All-American in 2014. A player with a career nearly every Husker would love to have.

Still ...

“It’s hard,” she said. “You know how you can be — and what you’re capable of — and sometimes an injury like this, you have restrictions. You’re limited. It’s hard to get past that point where, you know you can’t do things you used to do. It’s one of the hardest things. The simple stuff — going up and shooting — doesn’t feel like it used to. Or stopping and going. It may seem little, but it’s a big deal.”

Because of the pain — which Theriot said stems from the bones in her feet being “structured differently” — she hasn’t practiced in more than a month, a situation that Yori calls awkward. If Theriot weren’t a senior, and weren’t so smart, she probably wouldn’t have played at all.

And, for the last two games, she hasn’t. Theriot shut it down last Sunday. The coaches shut it down on Wednesday in a loss to Indiana.

Now, Theriot has one last home game. Sunday. Senior day. Northwestern. She wants to play. Her foot has to let her. Will it?

“We’ll see,” Yori said, adding that NU’s trainer has to sign off on Theriot playing. “It’d be a shame if Rachel couldn’t play.”

As good as Theriot has been over her career — she’s easily passed the 1,000-point career mark, she’ll finish third in career assists, and she has a school-record 12 games with double-digit assists — these lingering injuries have even vexed Yori to some small degree. Theriot has been healthy for only one season — her sophomore campaign, when she averaged 14.1 points and 7.1 assists and won that tournament MVP award.

The 6-footer from Middleburg Heights, Ohio, was slowed for most of her freshman season. She tore up the ankle halfway through her junior year. And she’s been off her game this season, especially since Big Ten play started.

“You just always wonder what she could have done if she wasn’t injured throughout her career,” Yori said. “Where would she fit into some of the best players in the history of our program? Unfortunately, she got bit by the injury bug and was never fully able to shake that.”

Theriot’s senior campaign, Yori said, “hasn’t been what any of us wanted,” Theriot included.

“Shots in the past where you’d say, ‘That’s pretty much money,’ those shots weren’t going in at the same rate this year,” Yori said. “She couldn’t go game speed in practice situations. She could do some light shooting, but not game speed — as you’d like it to be.”

Last season, NU still made the NCAA tournament after Theriot got hurt because of four seasoned seniors. This year, Theriot became the most experienced player on the roster, and, implicitly, she was called on to be a leader of many sophomores and freshmen.

But rehab from the ankle injury kept Theriot on the sideline for a summer trip to Australia. She went on the trip but she didn’t play. And Theriot, a true introvert, doesn’t see herself as a vocal leader. She’s plenty insightful — in a one-on-one setting. In larger groups, she relies on her craft, her skills, her knowledge of the game. Not her voice.

So trying to lead several freshmen, she said, was “very tough.”

“It’s a lot of pressure, when you’re holding everything together,” she said. The role felt unnatural to her.

“But, at that point, what do you do? You try to aim to please,” she continued. “I do a lot of my work on the court. I’m not going to come at someone, yell in their face and say, ‘Hey, you do this and that.’ I’m more of a teaching person, more than I will demand it or yell at you.”

As Yori puts it, her senior guard is “not afraid of her own shadow anymore, but she might be afraid of other people’s shadows.”

“She’s still pretty quiet and reserved,” the coach said. “She isn’t a rah-rah leader. But she’s someone who, early on, could not step in front of a group and speak without feeling very anxious about it, and now she’s capable of doing that and willing to do that.”

Foot injuries haven’t limited Theriot’s mind for the game one bit. She has every pass in her arsenal. Her best might be a deft drop-off when a post darts for the basket after a pick. It’s not fancy, but what makes it special is where Theriot leaves the ball — right where freshman center Jessica Shepard can catch and shoot in one motion.

Shepard is a lock for Big Ten freshman of the year. She might be the top freshman in college basketball. But in the first game Theriot missed, Shepard had two points.

Theriot’s basketball IQ “is off the charts,” Yori said. “She sees three steps ahead of the play, and most players are lucky if they can see one step ahead of the play. And some players play from behind. Rachel always sees what’s in front of her.”

Said Theriot: “I get more joy out of getting my teammates involved and seeing them succeed — especially now that I’m injured and can’t do as much as I think I can. Sometimes it’s good to be selfish — and sometimes it’s good not to be.”

Which is why, when plugged again for a favorite memory, Theriot picks the 2014 Big Ten tournament. She had 18 assists in a quarterfinal game against Minnesota. The Huskers won the Big Ten tournament title, and, for three nights, Theriot was the best player in the league. Nebraska sent off senior Jordan Hooper as the hero that Theriot thought Hooper was. That Nebraska team was effortless on offense — it could score from anywhere — and Theriot set NU’s season record for assists with 234. She was unselfish in a way that allowed everybody to win big.

She’d like for her feet to let her play one last game at Pinnacle Bank Arena. And she’d like to play for years to come. Theriot wants to pursue pro basketball — stateside, overseas, wherever she can. She smiles at the thought of that.

“I don’t want to get a job yet,” she said. “C’mon now. Who wants that? Play the sport you love, right? It means that you’re really not even doing a job. You are, but it doesn’t seem like it.”

Contact the writer:

 
 
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Row6Seat10

Row6Seat10

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The Huskers fate in the B1G conference tournament will be decided between the last four regular season conference games this afternoon. Win and the Huskers could be the seven seed. Lose and the Huskers could fall as low as the nine seed. 

Red Don

Red Don

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Huskers lead No'Westeren 63-51;  but have been ahead a much as 16 pts.

No'Western starters get most of the playing time, and 77% of their points; don't think No'Western is going to like continue running the court in the Fourth!

Red Don

Red Don

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Lady Huskers defeat Northwestern 76-67 in an exciting game.

 

Husker Freshmen step-up B1G Time. Maddie Simon with 16 pts (career high), followed by Shepard and Havers with 13 each, Romeo with 12, and Rachel Blackburn with 8 pts, Anya Kalenta and Esther Ramacieri with 5, and Jasmine Cincore with 4.

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