Box Score FARGO, N.D. – The Omaha men's basketball team remains in search of its first conference win of the year after dropping a 91-69 loss to preseason favorite North Dakota State at Bison Sports Arena on Thursday night. The Mavericks are now 10-7 (0-2 Summit League), while the Bison improve to 13-5 (2-1 Summit League).
Senior guard
Justin Simmons paced the Mavericks with a season-high 21 points, shooting 8-of-15 with four 3-pointers. Junior guard
CJ Carter joined him in double figures with 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting with a pair of threes as well as four assists, two rebounds and two steals. Sophomore guard
Devin Patterson rounded out the effort with 11 points on the night.
On the glass, junior forward
Mike Rostampour finished with a team-leading six rebounds, while senior forward
Matt Hagerbaumer added five.
NDSU had six players score in double figures: Taylor Braun (20), Lawrence Alexander (14), Mike Felt (13), Marshall Bjorklund (11), TrayVonn Wright (10) and Kory Brown (10). Braun pulled down a game-best eight rebounds with three assists, two steals and a block.
North Dakota State, which entered the game leading the nation in field goal percentage, shot 54 percent (32-of-59) from the floor, 42 percent (8-of-19) from three and 83 percent (19-of-23) at the line. The Bison totaled 11 blocks as a team, led by three from Wright.
The Mavericks shot 40 percent (24-of-60) from the field, 43 percent (9-of-21) from long range and 75 percent (12-of-16) at the charity stripe.
NDSU worked out to a quick 20-7 lead with the help of four 3-pointers in the first six minutes of play. The Mavericks then started to chip away at the Bison advantage, as a Carter 3-pointer from the left corner brought it to 28-22 with 8:25 to go. North Dakota State came back with a 9-0 run though, going up 37-24 by the last media timeout. Simmons then hit a right-side three, followed by a layup from Carter, getting Omaha back under 10 at 37-29. A final tip-in by Brown gave NDSU a 41-31 lead at the break, with the Bison shooting 16-of-30 (53 percent) to Omaha's 12-of-32 (38 percent).
Omaha shot slightly better at 43 percent in the second half, but NDSU surpassed its first-half shooting effort with a 55 percent effort in the second stanza. Despite 13 points from Simmons in the final 20 minutes, the Bison lead ultimately proved too steep a climb. Spurred by 13 second-half points from Felt and another nine from Braun, North Dakota State secured the 91-69 win, its fourth straight in the all-time series with UNO.
Omaha returns to action on Saturday, Jan. 18, closing its three-game road stretch with a trip to South Dakota State. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. at Frost Arena in Brookings, S.D., and links to live stats and audio will be available on OMavs.com. The game will be televised live outside the Omaha area on Midco, and the radio broadcast will be live on KOZN 1620 AM with Gary Sharp calling the action.