Final Stats
Macomb, Ill. - The UNO women's basketball team earned its first win over a fellow Division I opponent Tuesday night, coming from behind to knock off Summt League foe Western Illinois on the road, 65-58.
The Mavericks (8-4) fought back from a four-point halftime deficit to topple their future conference opponent and record their first win over a Division I school this year in four tries.
Jamie Nash led four Mavericks in double figures with 17 points off the bench.
Paige Frauendorfer had 13,
Stacia Gebers had 12 - six in the final two minutes - and
Cathleen Cox added 10.
With the score tied 53-53, Frauendorfer converted a huge three-point play to give UNO a 56-53 edge with 2:24 left in the game. The Leathernecks (3-7) then drew within one, 56-55, on a putback by Brittany Demery with 2:10 left.
The Mavs failed to score on their next possession, but Western Illinois' Sadie Webb missed a shot down low, and Gebers was fouled on the rebound. Gebers sank both free throws for a 58-55 lead with 1:40 left. After another free throw by Frauendorfer, Western Illinois cut the lead to 59-58 on a Valencia Kelly 3-pointer with 54 seconds remaining.
With the next possession critical for the Mavs, Gebers came up huge. She grabbed a missed 3-pointer by Cox and laid it in with 25 seconds left to push the lead back to three, 61-58. Gebers then grabbed the board on the next Leatherneck miss, and knocked down two more free throws to make it 63-58 with 12 seconds left to all but ice the game. A Nash steal as the Leathernecks tried to inbound the ball put the exclamation point on the win, as Nash knocked down both free throws for the final margin.
Nash scored her 17 points on 5-of-7 from the field and 7-of-8 from the free throw line. Gebers went 8-for-8 from the line, and the Mavs as a team shot 76.9 percent (20-of-26) from the charity stripe. UNO held Western Illinois to 26.3 percent from the field (21-of-80).
Heather Pohl had her third-straight double-digit rebounding game with 11 boards, helping the Mavs outrebound the Leathernecks 54-48. Gebers nearly had a double-double with eight rebounds. Nash grabbed seven boards, and Frauendorfer had six.
UNO trailed at halftime, 29-25, but busted out of the gate in the second half with a 7-0 run. Frauendorfer scored on the Mavs' first possession of the second half, then Cox made a steal and sprinted to the other end for a layup. Frauendorfer drained a 3-pointer with 17:33 left in the half to make it 32-29 UNO, its first lead since it was 7-6 at the 14:24 mark of the first half.
The Leathernecks briefly regained the lead at 36-35, but Nash knocked down two free throws to make it 37-36 UNO. Western Illinois' Rebecca Henricson drained a 3 to give WIU the 39-37 lead with 11:08 left, but Cox tied the game on a layup on the next possession. The teams went back and forth throughout the second half, with neither team leading by more than four points until the Mavericks' late surge.
Webb had a game-high 22 points to lead the Leathernecks.
UNO will take the next week off for Christmas break before returning to action at Tulsa on Wednesday, Dec. 28, the third straight Division I road game for the Mavericks.
