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OMAHA, Neb. – Despite another solid shooting effort, the Omaha men's basketball team saw its three-game win streak snapped on Saturday afternoon, falling 96-81 to Oakland. The Mavericks are now 8-17 (5-7 Summit League), while the Golden Grizzlies improve to 11-13 (6-4 Summit League).

Omaha shot .523 for the game, its seventh .500-or-better performance in the last nine games dating back to Jan. 3. In that span, the Mavericks have shot a combined .533 as a team.

Junior guard Justin Simmons paced Omaha with 25 points on 10-of-15 shooting with a trio of threes. He added four rebounds, two blocks and an
assist. Sophomore guard CJ Carter joined Simmons with 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting and a 5-of-5 effort at the free throw line, adding a team-leading six rebounds, five assists and three steals.

Junior center John Karhoff also finished in double figures, totaling 14 points on 7-of-12 shooting with five rebounds and three assists. Junior guard Alex Phillips added nine points and three boards, while senior forward Alex Welhouse had eight points and four rebounds.

Oakland shot .525 for the day and .190 from long range, hitting just four 3-pointers. Corey Petros scored a game-leading 28 points, while Travis Bader added 24, though the Mavericks limited Bader, the nation's leading 3-point shooter, to just one trey. Drew Valentine finished with a double-double on 14 points and 16 rebounds.

Simmons accounted for 14 points in the first half, while Carter had 13, helping UNO .581 field goal percentage to start the game. Omaha hit its first three 3-point attempts, with one from Phillips capping an 8-0 run that gave the Mavericks a 17-9 lead. Oakland countered with eight straight points to tie it at 17-all, and the game stalled four more times to bring it to 34-34. Four different Mavericks scored in a span of two minutes, pushing Omaha ahead 43-37, and buckets from Simmons and Carter closed out the half with UNO leading 47-43 at halftime.

The Golden Grizzlies, however, came out hot in the second stanza, hitting seven of their first eight shots from the field to go up 63-60. The Mavs regained the lead at 64-63 on a Marcus Tyus layup, but the score was knotted again at 66-all with a basket from Valentine. OU's Dante Williams hit a layup to spark an 11-0 run, giving Oakland a lead it would never relinquish. Omaha pulled within five with a bucket from Simmons with 5:48 to go, but the Mavs could not get past the Golden Grizzlies' .600 second-half shooting  and fell by a final tally of 96-81.

Omaha returns to action on Thursday, Feb. 7, visiting Western Illinois to kick off the Mavericks' final road trip of the season. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at Western Hall, and links to live stats, video and audio will be available on OMavs.com.