Lincoln – The Nebraska women’s basketball team notched its seventh straight win with a 58-39 run past Ohio State on Thursday night at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.

Senior point guard Lindsey Moore led the Huskers with 14 points, a season-high eight rebounds and four assists, while sophomore Emily Cady added 10 points and a career-high 16 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the year.

With the victory, Nebraska improved to 19-6 overall and 9-3 in the Big Ten. Ohio State slipped to 14-11 and 4-8 in the conference after being held to the lowest point total in Coach Jim Foster’s 11 seasons with the Buckeyes.

Junior forward Jordan Hooper added eight points and 10 rebounds, as Nebraska outworked the Buckeyes 53-45 on the boards. From the last media timeout in the first half, to the last media timeout of the game, the Huskers dominated the glass, 35-17, turning a tie game at 15 into a 19-point win.

“Rebounding and defense,” Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said. “Our offense struggled early tonight and Ohio State did a good job of taking some things away. But rebounding was big and our defense was really effective tonight. That is a big win for us.”

Nebraska rolled to its seventh straight Big Ten win despite shooting just 32.8 percent (22-67) from the field, including 4-for-14 from three-point range. But the Huskers held Ohio State to just 25.4 percent shooting (16-63), including 3-of-16 from long range. NU also kept Ohio State off the free throw line, as OSU hit all four of their free throw attempts in the first half. Nebraska also won the turnover battle 13-10.

In a low-scoring first half that featured cold shooting by both teams, Nebraska took a 25-21 lead to the locker room at the half. Ohio native Rachel Theriot led the Huskers with nine first-half points on 4-of-6 shooting, including her lone three-point attempt.

Hooper and Tear’a Laudermill each added four first-half points, while Moore and Katie Simon both contributed three points in the first half. Cady pitched in two points while adding 11 first-half rebounds.

Nebraska hit just 10-of-31 shots (.323) including 2-of-7 threes, while knocking down 3-of-5 free throws in the opening period. NU also won the first half turnover battle 9-6, and turned OSU’s turnovers into 12 big points.

Tayler Hill, who finished with a game-high 20 points, led the Buckeyes with 15 first-half points on 5-of-9 shooting, including a three-pointer. Hill added seven rebounds in the game. Amber Stokes and Raven Ferguson added six points in the game for Ohio State.

OSU hit just 28.6 percent (8-28) of its shots in the first half, including 1-of-3 three-pointers. OSU outrebounded NU, 22-21 in the half, but the Huskers pulled down the final seven rebounds of the first half.

NU added the first two boards of the second half and extended its lead to 29-21 just over a minute into the second period on back-to-back layups by Hailie Sample and Cady.

The Huskers pushed the lead to 10 points for the first time after a pair of Cady free throws made it 31-21 with 17:08 left. The Buckeyes would get no closer than six the rest of the way.

Laudermill’s three-pointer with 13:25 left capped a 9-0 NU run to push the Husker margin to 40-25 after the Buckeyes trimmed the margin to 31-25 with 16:04 left. Laudermill, who finished with nine points off the bench, gave NU its biggest lead of the night at 56-36 with 3:18 left.

Nebraska will enjoy the weekend off from competition before returning to Big Ten road action at Michigan on Thursday, Feb. 21. Tip-off with the Wolverines at Crisler Arena is set for 6 p.m. (CT)

Golden – The Chadron State College wrestling team ended its regular season on a high note defeating Colorado School of Mines 23-9 in a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference wrestling clash in Golden, Colorado.

The Eagles were led by the strong performances of Bret Klopp, Jordan Debus and Mike Hill.

Klop, wrestling at the 174 pound weight class won by major decision over Joshua Brown 14-5.

Debus, a two-time national qualifier also won by major decision, beating Ryan Swanson 12-3.

Hill won a close 3-1 decision over Alec Bird at heavyweight.

Other winners include Jace Johnson, Perry McAfee, Josh McCance and Dylan Fors.

The win gives the Eagles a 7-8 dual record to cap their regular season.

Chadron State will host the Super Region Four/RMAC Tournament on Feb. 22- 23 at the Nelson Physical Activity Center. The top four places qualify for the National Tournament.

Allan Schmaltz, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

125 – Jace Johnson (CSC) won by decision over Luis Gurule (CSM) 7-6.
133 – Perry McAfee (CSC) won by decision over Robert Schultheis (CSM) 9-6.
141 – Josh McCance (CSC) won by decision over Isaac Elge (CSM) 5-2.
149 – Austin Cordova (CSM) won by decision over Reed Burgener (CSC) 7-4.
157 – John Crowley (CSM) won by decision over Bruce Zurek (CSC) 10-3.
165 – Dylan Fors (CSC) won by decision over Justin Frazer (CSM) 8-7.
174 – Bret Klopp (CSC) won by major decision over Joshua Brown (CSM) 14-5.
184 – Jordan Debus (CSC) won by major decision over Ryan Swanson (CSM) 12-3.
197 – Paul Wilson (CSM) won by decision over Chris Leak (CSC) 10-4.
285 – Michael Hill (CSC) won by decision over Alec Bird (CSM) 3-1.

The Western Nebraska Community College women’s basketball team is back in the NJCAA national rankings after clawing their way through a season that saw the team undergo a lot of adversity last semester.

WNCC, 12-13, climbed back into the national rankings this week at No. 23. The Cougars are the highest Region IX team in the rankings this week as Sheridan College dropped to No. 25 and Gillette College dropped out of the rankings.

Jessica Aratani, the sophomore from Morrill, said getting back into the rankings is a bonus for the team especially since they have maintained a positive attitude despite all the adversity they have faced this season.

“I feel like we really deserve this,” she said. “We were at the top at the beginning and we know we belong there. Despite all the negative things that have been happening that have put us back, we still keep climbing to get back on top.”

The Cougars were as high as No. 6 in the nation back in December before they had to forfeit 13 games from a ruling from the NJCAA.

Aratani said the team has been motivated ever since and this is a special team this year.

“It really has pushed us more to work harder. We have to earn everything that we done,” she said. “It just keeps pushing us harder and harder because people are pushing us down. But we overcome all the obstacles and are right back on top.

“This team is special. We have really good chemistry on the court and off the court. We know we are good and we know we deserve to be up there. We have a chance to win a region title, which hasn’t been done here in a while. We also have a chance to go to nationals and do some work down there, too.”

Aratani said that there are a lot of ifs or could-have-beens to the season if they would not have had all the misfortune that they have endured. If that was the case, the Cougars would have been 25-0 and possibly number one in the country. The only other time the Cougars were number one in the country was back in February 2005.

“People are out to get us and they know that technically we haven’t lost a game and we have been winning every game in our region so far,” Aratani said. “Like Coach Harnish said, it will make anyone’s year if they knock us off one time and it will make their season. We know people are out to get us. That actually helps us out because they are playing their very best game and it pushes us to work harder and to get ready for the regional tournament.”

This week’s ratings finds a new No. 1 team as Trinity Valley Community College takes over the top spot from previous No. 1 Hutchinson Community College, who drops to No. 3. Central Arizona College (24-1) is at No. 2.

The rest of the top 10 includes sees North Idaho College at No. 4 (24-2), followed by Shelton State (24-0), Chipola College (22-3), Walters State Community College (23-1), Northwest Florida State College (21-3), Blinn College (24-1), and Collin County Community College (22-2).

Moving back into the rankings will be important during the next month as this year’s national tournament will take 24 teams. The 16 regional winners qualify along with the four runner-up teams from a selected four regions. The other four teams will come from at-large bids, which could be decided by the rankings.

The Cougar women will look to stay unbeaten in the South Sub-Region when they travel to Otero Junior College and Trinidad State Junior College this weekend.

Nebraska’s Jordan Hooper captured her second straight Big Ten Player-of-the-Week honor and the sixth of her career when the conference office announced its winner on Tuesday morning.

Hooper, a 6-2 junior forward from Alliance, Neb., poured in a game-high 29 points and added eight rebounds in Nebraska’s 76-75 win at Iowa on Monday night. She hit 11-of-23 shots from the field, including a pair of early three-pointers to allow the Huskers to lead the game from start to finish.

For the week, Hooper averaged 24.0 points and 7.5 rebounds while shooting Nebraska to a pair of road wins, including a 55-50 victory at Northwestern on Feb. 7. Hooper had 19 points and seven rebounds in a low-scoring affair with the Wildcats.

During Nebraska’s Big Ten-best six-game winning streak, Hooper has carried the Huskers with 24.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game to increase her team-leading averages to 19.5 points and 8.5 boards on the year. Hooper is shooting 49 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from long range during the surge.

Hooper, who also won the award Feb. 5 after leading NU to wins at Ohio State Jan. 31 (28 points, 7 rebounds) and against Minnesota Feb. 3 (27 points, 7 rebounds) shared this week’s honor with Penn State point guard Alex Bentley. It is Hooper’s third Big Ten Player-of-the-Week award of the season.

Hooper, who was a first-team All-Big Ten selection as a sophomore in 2012, also became one of Nebraska’s top-10 career scorers in the win over Iowa. In less than three seasons, Hooper has amassed 1,545 points (No. 10) and 715 rebounds (No. 8).