St. Cloud State countered UNO's second-half rally from a 15-point deficit by coming from behind in the closing seconds, then withstood two last-shot attempts by the Mavericks to post an 83-81 North Central Conference victory at Lee & Helene Sapp Fieldhouse Thursday night.
The loss spoiled a career-best 37-point performance by Maverick senior guard
Calvin Kapels, which pushed him to 1,006 points for his career. David Dreas' 36 points led the Huskies, who improved to 12-7 and took over second place in the league with a 3-2 mark. UNO is now 13-10 and 2-3.
SCSU's Adam Sullivan tied the game at 74 in regulation with a short jumper with 20 seconds left and a Maverick inbounds pass to
Ryan Curtis failed with a second to play.
Kelly Byrne gave the Huskies the lead for good in overtime, hitting a three-pointer in the opening minute and Dreas padded the lead to 83-78 with 1:35 to play with a pair of free throws. Kapels then hit three free throws when he was fouled on a shot from 21 feet with 43 seconds left, bringing UNO within two.
UNO forced a turnover in the backcourt with 32 seconds left, but couldn't get the tying field goal.
The Huskies shot a sizzling 66.7 percent the first half in marching to a 45-32 halftime lead. They led by as many as 18 before a pair of Kapels jumpers in the final two minutes helped to narrow the gap.
After SCSU opened scoring in the second half, the Mavericks stormed backj with a 20-5 run over a six-minute span to tie the game at 52. Kapels scored seven straight points during the run.
Kapels' jumper in the paint gave UNO a 66-59 lead with 4:54 left in regulation, but the Huskies responded with an 8-0 run in which Dreas hit five points. Kapels stopped the run with a three-point play, but Dreas nailed a three for a 70-69 lead with 1:45 left.
Denny Johnston gave UNO the lead back with a three-pointer with 1:13 left, however Dreas tied the game 12 seconds later by hitting two free throws. UNO again went up with 28 seconds left on a tip-in by
Chris DeSpain before Sullivan tied the game.
St. Cloud State connected on 8 of its final 10 shots in the game to finish at 51.7 percent to UNO's 41.2 percent.
Besides Kapels, UNO had
Chris DeSpain with 12 points and
Ryan Curtis with 11. Kapels hit 12 of 16 shots from the field including 2 of 3 from behind the arc and a perfect 11 of 11 from the line.
Sullivan added 15 points, Byrne 12 and Matt Siegle 11 for the Huskies. Dreas was 12 for 17 from the field, 6 of 9 on three-point shots and 6 of 7 from the line.
