The UNO Mavericks survived No. 14 Minnesota State, Mankato's late comeback from 11 points down in the final five minutes before ending its home season with a 68-64 upset of the North Central Conference champions Saturday night.
UNO, now 15-15 and 4-8, moves on to play at second-place St. Cloud State Wednesday night in the first round of the NCC's Wells Fargo Finals post-season tournament. Minnesota State fell to 21-6 and 9-3, but will host the semifinal and championship games March 4-5.
MSU, down by 66-55 with less than five minutes to play, scored nine straight points and twice had possessions with a chance to tie or win the game in the final minute. UNO senior
Ryan Curtis rebounded the last miss with a second to play and hit two free shots to secure the win.
Seniors
Calvin Kapels and
Quantel Murphy led UNO with 14 points and
Chris DeSpain add 13 for the Mavs.
Zac Robinson added 10 points and Curtis, one of four seniors playing their final home game, was held to four points and four rebounds.
UNO trailed by as many as seven in the first 10 minutes before using an 8-0 run in which
Grant Nieland scored four points, to take its first lead, 17-16, 12 minutes into the game. UNO took a 33-32 lead at the break on a jumper by Murphy and a layup by Kapels in the final 71 seconds of the first half.
UNO never lost the lead again, eventually moving out front by 11 twice, the last time at 66-55 with 5:26 to play. Luke Anderson started the comeback with a pair of free throws with 4:40 to play. Chris Whitfield followed with a dunk and Corey Easley nailed a three with 2:28 left to close the game to 66-62.
Tony Thomason finished the run with two free throws with 1:41 left. Twice the Mavs failed to get shots off as MSU's defense pressured UNO. But twice MSU missed before Curtis' rebound of a point-blank shot by Anderson
Paris Kyles led MSU with 16 points and six rebounds. Anderson, the NCC's leading scorer, was held to 12 points on 2-for-12 shooting and without a second-half field goal.
