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Moore leads No. 3 Nebraska over Iowa State, 60-50

Feb 18, 2010 - 4:34 AM By ERIC OLSON AP Sports Writer

LINCOLN, Neb.(AP) -- The scouting report on unbeaten Nebraska called for Iowa State to take its chances with freshman Lindsey Moore and concentrate its defensive efforts elsewhere.

The plan made sense, based on Moore's past performances, but turned out to be all wrong Wednesday night.

An 18-percent 3-point shooter coming into the game, Moore made 4 of 7 from long distance and scored a career-high 18 points as the third-ranked Cornhuskers set a school record for wins in a season with a 60-50 victory over the No. 13 Cyclones.

"Every point she scored was my fault," ISU coach Bill Fennelly said. "We were told not to guard her, and I take full responsibility for that. But to her credit she made big shots when they had to have them, and conversely we didn't do that."

The Cyclones played the Huskers (24-0, 11-0 Big 12) without star guard Alison Lacey, who suffered a concussion in practice on Tuesday. Fennelly decided to hold out his season scoring leader after the afternoon shoot-around, and he said her status is day-to-day.

Jessica Schroll and Denae Stuckey shared point-guard duties in place of the national leader in assist-to-turnover ratio and combined for 10 of the Cyclones' 24 turnovers.

"We obviously caught a break with Alison not playing," Nebraska coach Connie Yori said. "She's just such a great player and can do so many things for them. We tried to turn up our pressure, and we did some good things."

Cory Montgomery had 16 points and Kelsey Griffin overcame a slow start to finish with 11 points and 11 rebounds for the Huskers.

Kelsey Bolte scored 15 points and Schroll 14 to lead the Cyclones (19-5, 7-4).

Nebraska, coming off close road games against Kansas and Missouri, couldn't put away the Cyclones until the last 3 minutes.

Iowa State overcame an early seven-point deficit to take a 19-18 lead on Schroll's putback. But Montgomery scored seven points during a 9-0 run over the last 5:07 of the first half to put Nebraska up 27-19.

The 19 first-half points were the Cyclones' fewest since they had 18 against Texas A&M in their Big 12 opener.

"We tried to do some things defensively to slow the game down and stay in the game and shorten the game," Fennelly said. "The end of the first half was bad for us, and we had a spot in the second half. So when you play a team like this and you're limited in what your ability level is, you can't have any letdowns."

Moore had never scored more than 11 points in a game before Wednesday, and her four 3-pointers were as many as she had made in her previous nine games combined.

She came into the game shooting 28 percent from the field and having made 8 of her last 27 shots.

"I've always said Lindsey is a lot better shooter than her statistics would indicate," Yori said. "Before the season, watching her do our shooting drills and preseason workouts, I felt she was our best shooter. The comes out of her hand great. She had a bad start. You get into a bad start and it goes from there and you lose your confidence."

Moore figured Iowa State would back off her in favor of double-teaming Griffin and pressuring Yvonne Turner on the perimeter.

Moore said she's put in extra time working on her 3-point shooting in recent days.

"If people continue to lay off me like that, I'll have to step up and knock down the shots like I did tonight," Moore said.

Moore not only had the long shots falling, she showed an ability to finish near the rim.

Once, she threw up a blind left-handed shot from the side and had it drop. Later, she was bumped hard by 6-foot-7 Anna Prins just as she got off a shot in the lane, and it fell, too.

Griffin, the Huskers' All-America candidate, was limited to two points after getting in foul trouble in the first half. She came back to post her 14th double-double while joining 1993 All-American Karen Jennings as the only Nebraska players to record 1,800 points and 900 rebounds in a career.

Turner, who scored eight points, went over 1,000 for her career.

But this night belonged to Moore.

"One of the reasons we've been so successful this year is because this team isn't about one player," Griffin said. "It's a team, and we win games as a team. That definitely showed through tonight. We have a freshman who can step up and make big plays. Lindsey's mentality is as a passing point guard. But she is a capable shooter. I'm happy for her."