Lopers Roll in Kansas City; Tough Buffs Up Next
Kearney, Neb. – The Nebraska Kearney women's basketball team sunk 12 three pointers and used a big fourth quarter to get past Southern Nazarene (Okla.), 75-53, Saturday afternoon in Kansas City. This was the season-opener for both teams with the game part of the inaugural D2CCA Tip-Off Classic in Municipal Auditorium. The Lopers face 6th-ranked West Texas A&M Sunday at 11:30 a.m. The veteran Lady Buffs dispatched of 3rd-ranked Fort Hays State today, 71-58. UNK led for nearly 29 minutes but the Crimson Storm from Bethany, Okla., hung around thanks to 41% field goal shooting and eight of their own triples. The Lopers entered the final 10 minutes up 53-48 and tallied the first seven points to grab its first double digit lead and never look back. Kansas super senior Elisa Backes started the fourth quarter run with her second of three triples on the afternoon. After SNU missed two shots, South Dakota junior guard Trinity Law tallied a fast break layup with another Crimson Storm miss leading to a bucket by Iowa junior point guard Sarah Schmitt. The Lopers ended the day making 46% of its shots (28 of 61) with the 12 downtown makes coming on 28 attempts. Besides Backes, South Dakota super senior Klaire Kirsch had three, Law and Schmitt two apiece with Iowa reserves Meg Burns and Maegan Holt at one apiece. Last year, UNK had three games with a double-digit trey total with the high being 13. Four starters – Backes (15), Law (15), Kirsch (14) and Schmitt (10) – scored in double figures with Holt (five) one of four reserves to score off the bench. The Lopers had a plus 12 rebounding margin, thanks to seven boards apiece from Backes and Iowa redshirt junior Shiloh McCool, with UNK tallying 21 points off 20 SNU turnovers. Backes (five) and Kirsch (four) combined for nine steals. The Crimson Storm, who won 20 games last season, were led by starters Georgia Adams (14 points, eight rebounds) and Cassandra Awat (10 points, five rebounds and two assists).
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