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OMAHA, Neb. – The UNO men's basketball team opened its home schedule in fine fashion, picking up its first win of the season with a 100-68 decision over Concordia (Neb.) at Sapp Fieldhouse on Monday night. With the victory, the Mavericks are now 1-1 on the year, while the Bulldogs drop to 3-2.
Senior guard
Mitch Albers starred for the Mavs with a career-high-tying 30 points. He finished 12-for-13 from the field and a perfect 5-for-5 at the charity stripe, while also adding seven assists for another career best. After tonight's performance, Albers moved up to ninth in school history for career scoring, passing Stan Schaetzle (1953-57), who had 1,278 points. Albers now has 1,303 points in just over three seasons as a Maverick.
Sophomore guard
Caleb Steffensmeier put up a career-high 12 points on spotless 4-for-4 shooting from 3-point range, as well as a career mark of four steals. Sophomore center
John Karhoff (15) and junior forward
Alex Welhouse (11) chipped in double-figure scoring performances, and Welhouse pulled down a career-high-tying eight rebounds for the second straight game.
Senior center
John Ring grabbed six boards for the night, which tied his career best as well.
As a team, UNO shot 61.3 percent from the field and 50 percent from long range. At the free throw line, the Mavericks were 13-for-16 for an 81.3 percent effort. The .613 clip was the highest since UNO's .627 effort at Lincoln on Jan. 29, 2011.
UNO's last 100-point game came on Feb. 25, 2010, when the Mavs defeated Missouri Southern 113-111 in overtime in Omaha.
Concordia was led by three players in double figures: Beau Smith (15) Joel Haywood (15) and Porter Birtell (14). Birtell also chipped in 11 rebounds for a double-double.
Concordia got on the board first and went up 5-2 on a 3-pointer by Smith and a Braun jumper. The Mavericks tied it on Steffensmeier's first three of the night and never forfeited the lead again, helped by 10 points apiece by Karhoff and Albers in the first half. A 12-0 run over three minutes pushed Nebraska Omaha ahead at 26-9, capped by another 3-pointer by Steffensmeier. Another trey from Welhouse made it 31-11 in the Mavs' favor, and a jumper from Albers extended the lead to 40-22. A final layup by Albers in the closing seconds of the half made it 44-30 by halftime, giving UNO significant momentum for the second stanza.
Twelve of Albers' 20 second-half points came in the first five minutes, spurring the Mavericks to a 60-40 lead by 15:39. Leading 62-40 after a Ring jumper, Steffensmeier stole the ball and passed off to freshman guard
CJ Carter for the dunk, pushing it to 64-40. Back-to-back triples by Steffensmeier then made it 74-46, and a bucket from freshman guard
Mitchell Farr gave the Mavs their first 30-point margin of the night.
Though Concordia came back with a 10-2 run to make it 78-56, a layup and a free throw from Karhoff, followed by six straight points from Albers, kept UNO ahead at 87-58. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Farr and junior guard
Tyler Egli helped the Mavs to a 33-point lead, and another three from Egli in the final minute pushed UNO to the century mark. Concordia managed a layup in the final seconds, finishing the night with a score of 100-68 and the Mavs' first win of the season.
UNO returns to action on Wednesday, Nov. 14, traveling to UMKC. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at Swinney Recreation Center in Kansas City, Mo.