This Week
The Omaha women's basketball team (1-0, 0-0 Summit League) opens the road portion of the 2014-15 regular season against Air Force on Monday, Nov. 17. Tipoff is set for 8 pm. at Clune Arena in Colorado Springs, Colo.
The Teams
Omaha (1-0, 0-0 Summit League) is playing its first road game of the season on Monday. The Mavericks opened the season with a 59-39 win over Alcorn State. Junior Brianna Bogard scored 20 points to lead the Mavericks. Cathleen Cox added nine points and five rebounds.
Air Force (0-1, 0-0 Mountain West) will be playing their first home game of the season on Monday night. The Falcons lost their season opener on the road to Bakersfield 96-56. Lindsey Lewis led the Falcons with 15 points, including an 8-10 effort from the free throw line. Jimi Blagowsky added 11 points to go with a team-high three steals. Madeleine Philpot had a game-high seven rebounds and Cortney Porter led the team with four assists.
Last Time Out
OMAHA, Neb. – The Omaha women's basketball team opened the 2014-15 season with a 59-39 win over Alcorn State on Saturday afternoon at Sapp Fieldhouse. Junior Brianna Bogard scored 20 points to lead the Mavericks.
Bogard scored 14 of her 20 points in the second half as Omaha pulled away. The junior shot 6-12 from the floor and 6-8 from the free throw line to lead all scorers in the game. She also dished out four assists. Cathleen Cox added nine points and five rebounds.
Olivia Brown led Alcorn State with 13 points off the bench. Misha Jones had four points to go along with a game high nine rebounds.
Omaha shot 13-27 (48.1 percent) in the second half, outscoring Alcorn State by 20 after halftime. The Mavericks picked up their defensive intensity in the second half, limiting the Lady Braves to just 5-37 (13.5 percent) shooting. Omaha held a 44-39 rebounding advantage and recorded 7 blocked shots. UNO had 22 points in the paint and scored 17 points off turn-overs in the win.
The Mavericks scored the first two buckets of the game and stretched its lead to as many as seven points midway through the first half. Turn-overs allowed Alcorn State tie the score up at 22-22 at halftime.
Omaha exploded out of the gates in the second half outscoring Alcorn State 21-2 to put the game out of reach. Taijhe Kelly gave the Mavericks their largest lead 51-29 with a jumper in the paint at the 6:10 mark of the second half. The Lady Braves cut the lead to 14 points with 2:32 remaining in the game. Kelly blocked three shots in the final 1:37 as Omaha's defense clamped down and did not allow Alcorn State to score the remainder of the game. Madi Robson and Brianna Bogard each hit a pair of free throws down the stretch to make the final score 59-39.
The Mavericks are now 1-0, while the Lady Braves drop to 0-1.
The Coaches
Brittany Lange is in her second season as the head coach of the Mavericks. In her first season, Lange guided the young Mavericks to a 12-16 overall record. Despite season-ending injuries to two key players and with the youngest team in the Summit League - five freshmen and a total of seven newcomers among the nine healthy players - the Mavericks made strides throughout the season and it showed during the second half of league play. After starting out 1-6 in the Summit League, the Mavs went 3-4 the second time through the schedule to finish 4-10 and build confidence for 2014-15 with four starters returning. Nearly 70 percent of UNO's minutes were played by first-year Division I players; the next closest in the league was 26 percent.
Andrea Williams enters her fifth season as the head coach of the Air Force women's basketball program and seventh as a head coach. Williams owns a 32-136 career record. In her first four years leading the Falcons, Williams has already helped the program make great strides. In 2013-14, two Falcons were named to the Academic All-Conference team and senior Cherae Medina became the second player in the Div. I era to surpass 200 career assists. Air Force also set a school record with 15 three-point baskets against Utah State.
Media
Monday's game will be carried on the Mountain West Network's website. Tip-off is set for 8:00 p.m. (CT) on www.themw.com.
The Series
Omaha leads the all-time series against Air Force, 3-2. The two teams last met on Dec. 11in Omaha with the Mavs earning an 84-56 victory. The teams first played each other in 1980.
Up Next
Omaha starts a four-game home stand starting on Friday, Nov. 21 against Graceland University of Lamoni, Iowa. All Omaha women's basketball home games will be have live radio broadcast presented by NRG Media. KOZN 1620 AM will carry the radio broadcast live with Jon Green calling the action, and fans can also stream the broadcast on their smartphones by downloading NRG Media's app “1620theZone.” Links to live stats, audio and video will be available on OMavs.com.
