Huskers Tip Season against Oral Roberts Friday
The Nebraska women’s basketball team opens its 2020-21 season by taking on Oral Roberts on Friday at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Tip-off against the Golden Eagles (0-2) is set for 6 p.m. (CT).
Nebraska is coming off a 17-13 season that would have culminated with a trip to the Postseason WNIT in 2020, but the worldwide outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic ended the college basketball season before postseason play could begin.
Nebraska’s 12-player roster features plenty of new faces in 2020-21, with seven newcomers including four transfers and three true freshmen for fifth-year Coach Amy Williams.
While a majority of Nebraska’s roster is new to the program, Oral Roberts has experienced an even more massive overhaul with 12 newcomers on the Golden Eagle 16-player roster.
Last season, Nebraska defeated Oral Roberts 77-67 at Pinnacle Bank Arena on Dec. 14 to improve to 9-1 on the year. The Huskers are 7-0 all-time against ORU with all seven meetings in Lincoln.
Sam Haiby led the Huskers against the Golden Eagles, putting up 20 points, five rebounds and four steals. The junior from Moorhead, Minn., is Nebraska’s top returning scorer from a year ago when she averaged 10.0 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.5 steals.
Kate Cain added 15 points and game highs with eight rebounds and four blocked shots in the victory. The three-time Lisa Leslie Award candidate earned honorable-mention All-Big Ten accolades after averaging 9.3 points, 7.2 rebounds and a Big Ten-best 3.4 blocks per game. The 6-5 senior center who earned her bachelor’s degree in management from Nebraska in May, is Nebraska’s career leader in blocks with 280 after setting the school season record with 101 rejections in 2019-20. Cain is a two-time Big Ten All-Defensive selection.
Oral Roberts, which finished 2019-20 with a 15-16 overall record that included a 9-7 mark to tie for third in the Summit League, opened its 2020-21 campaign last weekend with a pair of road losses at No. 14 Arkansas and Oklahoma State.
Scouting Oral Roberts
• Oral Roberts brings an 0-2 record to Lincoln for Friday night’s game against Nebraska. The Golden Eagles opened with a 96-49 loss at No. 14 Arkansas (Wednesday, Nov. 26), before suffering a 73-54 setback at Oklahoma State on Sunday (Nov. 29).
• Head Coach Misti Cussen is in her ninth season at the helm for the Golden Eagles and holds a 124-124 overall head coaching record. After going 15-16 overall and 9-7 in the Summit League last season, ORU was picked to finish fourth in the Summit League Preseason Poll.
• In the season-opening loss to the Razorbacks, ORU lost senior starting guard Keni Jo Lippe in the game’s second minute to an ankle injury. Lippe averaged 18.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.6 steals last season to earn first-team All-Summit League honors.
• The 5-9 guard from Adair, Okla., who sat out the loss to Oklahoma State with the ankle injury, comes to Nebraska with 1,215 career points. She led all scorers with 21 points in ORU’s 77-67 loss at Nebraska last season.
• The only other returning Golden Eagles to play in last season’s game at Nebraska are senior Regan Schumacher and sophomore guards Gem Summers and Nena Taylor. None of those three players scored, and Taylor has not made an appearance yet for ORU this season.
• Summers is ORU’s scoring leader so far this season, averaging 9.5 points per game off the bench, including a career-high 16 points in a career-high 25 minutes at Oklahoma State.
• Schumacher, a 6-2 center, has averaged 7.0 points and a team-best 7.0 rebounds early this season, including six points and a career-high 12 rebounds at Oklahoma State.
• The rest of the ORU roster is filled with newcomers, including eight freshmen: (Corrie Anderson, Tierney Coleman, Tyaija Coleman, Hannah Giddey, Camryn Hill, Courtlyn Loudermill, Addisyn Moore and Faith Paramore); two sophomore transfers (Sinetra Jones, Bo Teulings); junior transfer Ariel Walker; and redshirt senior transfer Manaya Jones.
• Freshmen Tierney Coleman (7.0 ppg, 2.5 rpg) and Addisyn Moore (1.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg) have started both games for ORU, while junior Ariel Walker has also been in the starting lineup for both games, averaging 6.5 points and 5.5 rebounds. Walker is a 5-5 guard from Allen Community College.
• Tierney Coleman’s twin sister, Tyaija, joined her and Moore as freshmen in the starting five at OSU. All three played high school basketball together in the Dallas metro area at Trinity Christian in Cedar Hill, Texas.
• Another freshman, Faith Paramore, stepped up big for the Golden Eagles with 14 points and seven rebounds in her collegiate debut at Arkansas. She added four points and four rebounds at Oklahoma State to average 9.0 points and 5.5 rebounds through two games.
Nebraska vs. Oral Roberts Series History
• Nebraska leads the all-time series with Oral Roberts 7-0, including a 77-67 victory over the Golden Eagles last season (Dec. 14, 2019) in Lincoln.
• Sam Haiby led the Huskers with 20 points and four steals, while Kate Cain contributed 15 points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots. Keni Jo Lippe led the Golden Eagles with a game-high 21 points to go along with seven rebounds and three steals.
• All seven games in the series have been played in Lincoln, and the Huskers have produced a double-digit win in all seven contests.
Nebraska 77, Oral Roberts 67, Dec. 14, 2019 (Lincoln)
Nebraska 89, Oral Roberts 53, Dec. 29, 2013 (Lincoln)
Nebraska 80, Oral Roberts 67, Dec. 20, 2012 (Lincoln)
Nebraska 70, Oral Roberts 51, Dec. 2, 2009 (Lincoln)
Nebraska 95, Oral Roberts 62, Dec. 31, 1990 (Lincoln)
Nebraska 110, Oral Roberts 61, Dec. 5, 1989 (Lincoln)
Nebraska 100, Oral Roberts 87, Nov. 27, 1987 (Lincoln)
