Griffin, Nebraska Overwhelm Northern Iowa 83-44
Northern Iowa's Lizzie Boeck, bottom, and Nebraska's Kala Kuhlmann fight for control of a loose ball during the second half an NCAA first-round college basketball game in Minneapolis, Sunday, March 21, 2010. Nebraska defeated Northern Iowa 83-44. (AP Photo/Hannah Foslien)
By
Aaron Hepker
Story Created:
Mar 21, 2010 at 8:12 PM CST
Story Updated:
Mar 21, 2010 at 8:12 PM CST
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Nebraska wouldn't let Northern Iowa take down another No. 1 seed.
Kelsey Griffin had 22 points and nine rebounds to lead the Cornhuskers to an 83-44 victory over 16th-seeded Northern Iowa in the first round of the NCAA women's tournament Sunday night.
Dominique Kelley added 11 points for Nebraska (31-1), the top-seeded team in the Kansas City regional.
Lizzie Boeck had 10 points and eight rebounds for Northern Iowa (17-16), one day after the Panthers men's team busted brackets across the country by beating No. 1 Kansas in the second round of the tournament.
After a shaky start, the Huskers bounced back from a loss to Texas A&M in the Big 12 tournament semifinals to show that they are still a team to be reckoned with in this tournament.
The Huskers, who were 15-16 a year ago when Griffin missed the season with a foot injury, went 29-0 in the regular season and have designs on challenging blue bloods UConn, Tennessee and Stanford — the other three No. 1 seeds — for a national title.
Nebraska coach Connie Yori and Northern Iowa coach Tanya Warren were teammates in college at Creighton, and Yori didn't take it easy on her friend and former point guard.
The Huskers blew the game open with an 22-7 spurt to start the second half, forced 17 Panthers turnovers and made 10 of 20 3-pointers to move on to the second round.
From the way the Panthers started, it was clear they were still inspired from the men's team shocker the night before. Ali Farokhmanesh and the ninth-seeded men upended the tournament's No. 1 overall seed in Kansas with a combination of clutch shot-making and a refusal to back down against the best the Big 12 had to offer.
The Panther women were similarly undaunted early against the Cornhuskers, the Big 12 regular season champs. The Northern Iowa defense pestered Nebraska into a slow start from the field, forcing misses on seven of the Cornhuskers' first nine attempts.
Midway through the period, the Huskers were clinging to a 20-18 lead before they turned up the heat on defense to start to overwhelm the Panthers, who shot 29 percent for the game.
Nebraska had eight steals in the opening period and forced 12 turnovers. A 3 by Yvonne Turner gave Nebraska a 35-24 lead just under three minutes before the half, and the Panthers never challenged after that.
Panthers guard Jacqui Kalin, an All-Missouri Valley Conference player and the team's leading scorer during the regular season, missed her first 11 shots and finished with two points on 1-for-12 shooting, a continuation of an offensive slump that only saw her score 13 points combined in three MVC tournament games.
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