March 23, 2008
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
No. 8 seed Nebraska (21-11) defeated No. 9 seed Xavier (24-9), 61-58, Sunday afternoon during first-round action in the 2008 NCAA women's basketball tournament.
Postgame Notes
• Nebraska improves to 3-7 in NCAA Tournament play all time. Their last win came on March 13, 1998, when the #8 Huskers defeated #9 New Mexico, 76-59, in the first round of the East Regional in Norfolk, Va.
• Xavier drops to 4-7 all time in NCAA Tournament play. They have not won since March 24, 2001, when the #4 Musketeers upended #1 Tennessee, 80-65, in the Mideast Regional Semifinal in Birmingham, Ala.
• For Nebraska's head coach Connie Yori, the victory is her first in the NCAA Tournament since leading Creighton to an 84-73 victory over Bowling Green in the first round of the 1994 NCAA Tournament.
• Nebraska is now 18-0 when they lead at halftime, while Xavier is now 5-5 when they trail at the break.
• Xavier drops to 6-7 when they shoot less than 40 percent from the field. Nebraska improves to 2-4 when they shoot less than 40 percent from the field.
• Nebraska had 14 assists compared to eight for Xavier. Nebraska is now 19-1 when they have more assists than their opponents this season.
• With the win, it is the first time this season Nebraska has won in a game decided by three or less points. NU had lost the previous two games decided by three or less.
• Xavier dropped to 5-7 when they allow more than 60 points and 5-3 in games decided by four points or less.
• Nebraska junior Kelsey Griffin scored in double figures for her 15th straight game, 23rd this season, and the 72nd time of her career.
• Xavier sophomore Amber Harris blocked six shots to extend her career school record to 228.
• With five field goals made today, Amber Harris now has the seventh most made field goals in a season in Xavier history with 194. In addition, her 13 field goals attempted gives her 473, good for fourth most in school history.
• With 10 rebounds today, Harris is now 5th all-time at Xavier with 598 rebounds.
• With 14 points today, Harris reached double-figure points for the 7th straight game, 27th this season and 53rd in her career.
• Xavier freshman Ta'Shia Phillips grabbed 16 rebounds, the 22nd time this season she has recorded double-digit rebounds.
• Nebraska junior Tay Hester scored in double figures for the eighth time this season.
• Xavier junior Jerri Taylor reached double-figure points for the 18th time this season, after only scoring double-figures six times in her first two years at XU.
• Nebraska sophomore Cory Montgomery scored in double-figures for the 15th time this season, 20th of her career and first in eight games.
• Nebraska senior Danielle Page extends her single-season blocks record to 76 with five blocks today. It is the eighth time in career that she has five or more blocks and just the 23rd time in Nebraska history a player has reached five or more blocks.
Nebraska Quotes
Head Coach Connie Yori
Opening Statement:
"Well, I thought the pace of the game was in our favor. We wanted to run and up and down and the fact that Ta'Shia Phillips got in foul trouble in the first half, I thought was important. (Xavier) didn't have the post play to run with us so at that point, I thought that favored us through a good portion of the game. When we got the lead, we got a little tentative. Kelsey Griffin had a great game for us and she is one of the most underrated players in the country. She doesn't get a lot of noterity, but the Big 12 people know who she is. Her name may not be one you know across the country, but you can she how great of a player she is. We're glad she's on our team. She made a lot of plays when we needed her to make them."
On Griffin being underappreciated nationally:
"I've been a head coach for 18 years at the college level and I don't know if I've coached a player more tough than Griffin. She's got a great mental toughness. She's got a skill level that she can do what she did tonight. She didn't give herself enough credit. She's hit plenty of those shots during the season and we've run a lot of things for her. The Big 12 knows about her. When you're first team all-conference in the Big 12 as a sophomore like she was last year, our league coaches know about her. She's right there with some of the top players in our conference."
On how Griffin ended up at Nebraska:
"We got lucky. She got some attention, but she was a kid that wasn't out a lot. She did not play during the summer between her sophomore and junior year when players get a lot of attention. She was injured so we didn't see a lot of her before her senior year. There were some programs that got in, but we were one of the first ones to offer her a scholarship. We got lucky and she loved our weather. Coming from Alaska, it was an easy transition. We were fortunate to get her."
On Tay Phillips being aggressive:
"I just think the pace of the game was favorable for Tay's game. She is a player who is good in transition and who can do some things in that setting. We did a really good job for the 30 minutes running the floor, making the game an up and down game and that favor's Tay."
Junior Guard Tay Hester
On scoring double figures for the first time since January 26 against Baylor:
"The pace of the game helped me because it's the type that I like. I attacked the basket and they were having trouble with transition defense. We knew that if we kept up our pace we would get easy layups. I just attacked the basket."
Junior Forward Kelsey Griffin
On her comfort level of scoring with her back to the basket or facing the basket:
"I was happy that my jumper was on tonight. 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. They are great defenders and they made me have to step away from the basket. You have to credit Xavier because they played great defense."
On double-teaming Xavier's post players:
"We knew that Xavier was a huge threat inside so we knew that if we were going to put ourselves in a position to win that we needed to focus on that. We threw different defenses at them and different players were doubling and I know as a post player that is the most frustrating thing to play against. We were able to lock down and focus on what our coaches told us to do and it really helped us. Our ability to know where their shooters were and their tendencies was a key for us in winning the game."
On playing defense and Ta'Shia Phillips picking up her second foul:
"That was really key because we were able to get up and down the floor. To have her in foul trouble really played into our favor. On offense we were able to get easier shots and on defense that forced Xavier to work that much harder against our double teams. That was key for us in making our push and going into halftime strong."
Sophomore Forward Cori Montgomery
On her scoring production in the game:
"When I come in, I try to give my team a needed spark and do my part. My shot was on tonight. I came in and worked hard. I wanted to be aggressive and help my team by making the open shot."
Xavier Quotes
Head Coach Kevin McGuff
Opening Statement:
"I want to congratulate Nebraska on their victory; they played an excellent game and certainly played harder and competed more towards 40 minutes than we did today. We did a lot of very positive things this season and I think at the end of the game we finally found a sense of urgency and just wish we would have found that earlier."
On Xavier's tough start, falling behind 13-2:
"I don't know what it was, but we weren't playing at the level that we have played at recently ... Our intensity wasn't what it should have been ... Certainly defensively, we weren't doing what we had practiced and against a really talented Nebraska team you can't do that. To their credit, they took advantage of us not really being in sync to start the game."
On next year, not having a senior and what it means heading into next season:
"You know, its certainly exciting to think about the possibilities of having everybody back. I hope we can take today and use it as a real learning experience ... Like any team, we need to have a big off-season but with such young talent, I know I'm going to really challenge and push our team during the off-season to make sure that given an opportunity to get back to the NCAA Tournament, we show up and put our best foot forward."
On Ta'Shia's absence and what that meant to the team:
"Ta'Shia is a big part of what we do on both ends of the floor. She's such a physical presence around the paint, so certainly her foul trouble hurt us but I think we could have overcome it had we played more as a team and with more energy to start the game ... I looked at the last seven minutes and kind of how we played and think that's some what reflective of what we've done recently and unfortunately we just couldn't do that for 40 minutes."
Freshman Center Ta'Shia Phillips
On her early foul trouble and how it played into the game:
"Just coming in here, Coach told us to be aggressive and that's what we were trying to do and with foul trouble it kind of makes things a little bit harder to do ... the inside out game or getting defensive stops and rebounds but we did our best with what we had."
Sophomore Forward Amber Harris
On what Nebraska did on defense in the first half:
"I really just couldn't find my shot. I think they were just trying to double team down on me and try to disrupt my shot."
Junior Guard Jerri Taylor
On if they did anything that surprised you:
"They really didn't do anything that surprised me. We knew that Nebraska was a good team but we just did not come out and play our game today. Ta'Shia is one of our leading scorers, so when she got into foul trouble I think that hurt us a lot in the beginning but outside of that, we just didn't have enough fight in us at the beginning of the game ... but we did towards the end of the game. I felt like this was the team that would advance in the tournament this year ... I felt like we played hard throughout the year we everybody ... With two transfers, I felt like we finally jelled together, so that was a surprise."
