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OMAHA, Neb. – The UNO men's basketball team closed the book on its Sapp Fieldhouse era on Wednesday night, defeating in-state rival Nebraska-Kearney 85-68 in front of a season-high crowd of 1,949 fans. With the win, the Mavericks improve to 11-16 on the year, while the Lopers drop to 13-10.

Tonight marked the final men's basketball game played at Sapp Fieldhouse, as the Mavericks will play at the new Ralston Sports and Events Center beginning with the 2012-13 season. Sapp Fieldhouse has been the home of Maverick men's basketball since its opening in 1949. To celebrate Alumni Night, former players were honored with a variety of special presentations throughout the game.

Junior forward Alex Welhouse led the Mavericks with 24 points on a career-high six 3-pointers, adding eight rebounds, a pair of assists and a block. Welhouse, who shot 6-for-9 from behind the arc, topped his previous career mark of five in a single game set last season against Pittsburg State.

Senior guard Mitch Albers also had 19 points, six rebounds and three assists for the game. Albers' career scoring total now stands at 1,769 points, just 47 points away from all-time scoring leader Dean Thompson's 1,816 points over four years.

Freshman guard CJ Carter had 14 points, shooting 6-for-11 from the field, as well as six boards, four assists and a trio of steals. Sophomore center John Karhoff added 10 points with perfect 4-for-4 free throw shooting, in addition to four rebounds and an assist, and sophomore forward Matt Hagerbaumer also pulled down eight rebounds for the night.

Nebraska-Kearney was had three players finish with double-figure scoring: Jon Henderson (15), Chris Deans (11), Ben Klein (11) and Tim Billingsley (11). Tyler Shields grabbed a game-leading nine rebounds – eight of which were offensive – and Drew Sankey contributed eight more.

As a team, UNO committed a season-low six turnovers and forced 14 miscues from the Lopers. The Mavericks shot 43 percent from the field, while UNK was held to a 32 percent performance.

Sophomore guard Caleb Steffensmeier opened the game with a 3-pointer, after which UNK worked back to tie the game at 5-5. Deans dropped in two treys in the first five minutes, putting the Lopers ahead by one at 15:24, but the Kearney lead was short-lived. A Karhoff jumper put the Mavs back in control, and a three from Albers pushed the score to 12-8. Steffensmeier then snagged a steal and passed it off to Carter on the fastbreak, starting a 9-0 Maverick scoring run. With Welhouse's first three, followed by jumpers from Coleman and Albers, Nebraska Omaha took it out to 25-13.

With 10 minutes left in the half, another Welhouse trey made it 28-15, and his third one later extended it to 39-26. Two Albers charity shots gave the Mavs their biggest margin of the half at 49-31, and Nebraska-Kearney managed one more layup from Henderson in the closing seconds. By halftime, the Mavericks led 49-33.

Welhouse starred in the second half, totaling 15 points and shooting a perfect 3-for-3 from long range. He kicked off the second stanza with a reverse layup on a pass from Steffensmeier, then put up a trio of 3-pointers and another bucket – all within the first four minutes – to bring UNO up to a 62-40 advantage. Welhouse accounted for 13 of UNO's first 15 points of the second half.

A free throw by Hagerbaumer spotted UNO its largest lead of the game at 67-40, and a layup by sophomore guard Isiah Gandy later maintained that 17-point margin at 69-42.

Over a span from 6:05 to 2:03, UNK's Billingsley and Klein combined to hit four 3-pointers that sheared away at the tally, but UNO's lead was too great to overcome. With junior Jacques Coleman's quick pass to Bill Freeman for a final dunk to punctuate the game, Nebraska Omaha went on to take the 85-68 victory in its final appearance at the historic fieldhouse.

UNO returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 25 for a rematch with Cal State Bakersfield. Tipoff is set for 9 p.m. (CT) at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield, Calif.