KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Texas A&M women's coach had some tongue-in-cheek advice for Nebraska, concerning the benefits of entering the NCAA tournament with a loss.

Saturday's the best time to drop one, Gary Blair said. Then the Huskers can play pressure-free.

“I believe it would help Nebraska if they would lose one in the conference tournament to take that monkey off their back,” Blair said Friday, drawing chuckles from the reporters gathered nearby. “Let them win the national championship. Let me just win this little thing right here.”

Blair could very well get his wish granted.

He and the fourth-seeded Aggies will meet Nebraska (30-0) in the Big 12 tournament semifinals at noon Saturday inside Municipal Auditorium. The winner gets a shot at the tourney title Sunday.

The top-seeded Huskers have never made it to the championship game in the 13-year history of the tournament.

But Nebraska's starting to turn its focus to the NCAA tournament, now that coach Connie Yori thinks her team has locked up a No. 1 seed.

Yori said before the tournament started that she planned to alter the Huskers' in-game rotation this weekend, relying more on bench players to keep her starters rested and healthy. That wasn't exactly the case during Nebraska's 63-46 win over Kansas State in the quarterfinals Friday, but Yori insisted afterward that her approach would be different from now on.

“We felt like we weren't going to go as deep in (the K-State) game, but we will probably end up going deeper into our bench,” Yori said.

Her team's Feb. 6 meeting with Texas A&M (23-7) likely factors into that cautionary approach. The physical Aggies made it tough on Nebraska before the Huskers ultimately prevailed with a 71-60 win in Lincoln.

Texas A&M players came away from that game with plenty of confidence. They were down 12-2 early on, but battled back and nearly pulled off an upset.

Blair said the Aggies will have to keep the basketball out of Kelsey Griffin's hands to have a chance Saturday. And when Griffin takes a breather, Texas A&M has to capitalize.

“You've got to make them work and take advantage when they go to their bench,” Blair said. “Keep them from scoring the easy baskets, keep Griffin from having one-and-ones and hope like heck the others do not beat you.”

Huskers keep shooting

Just moments after nailing Nebraska's first 3-pointer of the game Friday, Cory Montgomery got high-fives and hugs as she jogged toward the Husker bench

Usually, Montgomery's first perimeter make isn't that big of a deal. But Nebraska had missed its first 18 3-point attempts against the Wildcats, so the players wanted to celebrate with 7:45 left.

“We're confident shooters and we missed our first couple,” Montgomery said. “But we knew we had to keep shooting.”

That shot gave Nebraska a 56-40 lead over K-State. It also kept the Huskers from ending a game without a 3-pointer for the first time since December 2008.

Short-handed 'Cats

Kansas State was one foul away from finishing the game with just five active players.

Only seven Wildcats dressed Friday, and then senior Kari Kincaid appeared to injure her knee and limped toward the locker room with about six minutes left.

Guard Taelor Karr and forward Branshea Brown both picked up four fouls but neither fouled out.

“Depth really all season long has been an issue,” K-State coach Deb Patterson said.

Odds and ends

Kelsey Griffin set a Nebraska record by starting her 123rd career game Friday. ... Yvonne Turner finished with two steals, enough to vault her into fifth on Nebraska's all-time career list. ... Griffin was named Thursday as one of nine finalists for the V Foundation Comeback Award, an honor given to a women's basketball player who succeeds despite physical or emotional obstacles.

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