WBB: Huskers Have True Post Players to Compliment Returning Guards

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Two of them are freshmen, Jessica Shepard and Rachel Blackburn. And it’s Shepard, perhaps the best player ever produced in the state, who gets top billing, even after 10 months on the shelf to repair and rehab a torn ACL.

“We’ve waited a long, long time to have Jess Shepard put a uniform on,” Yori said after an exhibition win against UNK in which the 6-foot-4 Shepard scored 29 points in 17 minutes. “Jess is really physical, but she’s also really agile and graceful for a kid of her stature. Really skilled.”

Shepard’s arrival, along with the emergence of Blackburn and redshirt freshman Darrien Washington and the eventual addition of Alicia Ostrander from the volleyball team, underlines how different Nebraska will be.

So did the stat line against UNK. Nebraska only took four 3-pointers.

“Our personnel last year, we probably would have taken 20 to 25 3s in that game,” Yori said.

Nebraska lost a lot off last year’s team. Four seniors — Cady, Hailie Sample, Tear’a Laudermill and Brandi Jeffery — brought chemistry and, in the case of Sample and Laudermill, perimeter defense. All four got along. All four were capable of changing games on their own. All four made it four years in the same program, which is rare in men’s or women’s basketball.

 

OWH

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