Final Stats
OMAHA, Neb. - It was a fitting end to the season for the UNO women's basketball team and its four seniors on Senior Day on Saturday afternoon, as the Mavs bolted to a 10-0 lead and never looked back in a 68-41 win over Kansas City at the Sapp Fieldhouse.
Paige Frauendorfer scored 22 points and grabbed nine rebounds;
Jamie Nash had 17 points and tied her career high with 12 assists;
Carolyn Blair-Mobley had 13 points, and
Carly Cator contributed two points, three rebounds and an assist in the win.
The Mavericks finished the season 17-11 overall and 7-9 in their first year in The Summit League. The 17 wins match the most since 2005-06. The Mavs are not eligible to compete in The Summit League tournament this season but will finish either fifth place or tied for fifth place in the conference standings. Kansas City finished the regular season 9-20 overall and 5-11 in conference play. The Kangaroos will be the seventh seed in next week's tournament.
Frauendorfer and Nash combined for the first seven points of the game and
Ericka House's 3-pointer at 14:43 made it 10-0. The Mavs built the lead to 16-2 at the 12:11 mark and 28-12 with 1:05 left in the first half.
UNO led 31-17 at halftime, but Blair-Mobley opened the second half with a 3-pointer, and Frauendorfer, Cator and Nash followed with buckets of their own for a 40-19 lead by the 17:40 mark. The seniors stole the show in the second half, producing 31 of the Mavs' 37 points. They finished with 54 of the Mavs' 68 points.
In the final minutes, head coach Chance Lindley took his four seniors out of the game one at a time to a standing ovation from the 487 Maverick fans in attendance.
Frauendorfer filled the stat sheet in addition to her 22 points and nine rebounds, adding five assists, four steals and one block. Nash added five rebounds and three steals to her fourth double-double of the season, and Blair-Mobley also had five rebounds.
Taijhe Kelly had eight rebounds and blocked five shots to finish the season with 74 blocks, the most by a UNO player in a single season since 1980-81.
The Mavs shot 45.2 percent (28-of-62) and were 17-of-31 (54.8 percent) after halftime. After going 0-for-8 from 3-point range on Thursday, the Mavs responded with a 7-for-16 performance from long distance against UMKC. Nash was 3-for-3, and Blair-Mobley was 2-for-4 to lead the way. On the defensive end, UNO forced 17 UMKC turnovers and outscored the Kangaroos 22-10 in points off turnovers. The Mavs also held the Kangaroos to 27.6 percent (16-of-58) from the floor for their best defensive effort in Summit League play this season.
"I'm very proud of our seniors and our whole team for what they accomplished this season," Lindley said. "Obviously we're not to the level we want to be as a program just yet, but we are moving toward it and have come a long way since last year. Our four seniors set a foundation for us that can only help us moving forward. This year was a tremendous stepping stone for the future, and this senior class has been a huge reason why. They are a special group and they deserved to go out like they did."
