LINCOLN — Sunday’s game was supposed to resemble more of a grind-it-out-style affair, where the Huskers would try to overpower their opponent by mercilessly pounding the basketball inside.

But Nebraska’s hot-shooting guards had other ideas.

The NU women’s team made its first four 3-pointers and connected on 11 of its first 16 shots, jumping out to a 19-point lead eight minutes in.

And thanks to near-precise execution on offense and an unforgiving relentlessness on defense, the Huskers (4-0) cruised from that point on and routed Washington State 107-54 before a Devaney Center crowd of 3,593 Sunday afternoon.

It was the first time NU surpassed the century mark since it defeated Baylor in triple overtime four years ago and just the third time under coach Connie Yori.

“This is not really what I expected going into the game ... They caught us on a night when we played really well,” Yori said. “(It was) just an all-around great performance by a lot of our players.”

Junior Dominique Kelley made two 3-pointers early and scored 10 of NU’s first 22 points. Senior Yvonne Turner and freshman Lindsey Moore both buried open 3-pointers in the first three minutes, too.

By the time star forward Kelsey Griffin scored her first points, NU already held a 20-6 lead with 13:41 left. Three minutes later, Nebraska’s other talented inside threat, Cory Montgomery, made her first field goal, giving Nebraska a 30-9 lead.

The Huskers made 60 percent of their shots before halftime and tied a school record by scoring 59 first-half points.

Despite Washington State’s press, they had just two turnovers during the first 14 minutes of the game — and both of those were offensive fouls called away from the ball. Griffin said the team’s mostly mistake-free first half helped create more chances to score and eliminated easy opportunities for the Cougars, who Griffin said like to run.

“We’re a pretty good shooting team ... When we’re turning the ball over, we don’t get shots,” Griffin said. “Us taking care of the ball helped us in the sense that we weren’t always playing catch-up and chasing them. And they weren’t able to get as many transition points.”

Instead, Washington State (1-2) had to work on offense, and it struggled all day.

The Cougars, who lost a seven-point game at Kansas State on Friday night, shot just 25.6 percent, committed 15 turnovers and had a couple of scoring droughts that were costly in the first half Sunday.

Down by six about three minutes into the game, Washington State went more than five minutes without a bucket, missing all seven of its shots and turning the ball over three times during that stretch. The Huskers capitalized by extending their advantage to 19 when Nicole Neals buried a long jumper with 11:28 left.

It got worse from there for the Cougars, who missed their last 14 shots before halftime.

“It was just one of those days where we played well on both ends,” Yori said. “I liked our defense.”

Nebraska will next face Arkansas-Little Rock in a California tournament this Friday.

• Box Score

Contact the writer:

402-473-9585, jon.nyatawa@owh.com

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