INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Omaha women's basketball fell to IUPUI, 68-49, on Saturday afternoon at The Jungle in Indianapolis, Ind. The Mavericks dropped to 6-15 overall and 1-8 in the Summit League. IUPUI improved to 10-12 and 5-4 in the league.
Mikaela Shaw led the Mavericks in scoring with a game high 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field. Shaw grabbed four rebounds, dished out three assists and had one steal.
Remy Davenport added 11 points, all in the second half, on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor. Davenport grabbed two rebounds to go along with a team-high three steals. Sami Pawlak had eight points and four rebounds. Vanessa Barajas, in her first collegiate start, blocked three shots.
IUPUI had four players in double-digit scoring. Akilah Sims had a team-high 14 points and seven rebounds. Nevena Markovic and Mikale Rogers each had 11 points, while Shaquira Scott added 10 points.
The Jaguars came out on fire, hitting 55.5 percent (5-of-9) of their shots in the opening 10 minutes of the half to take a 17-8 lead. Omaha's defense kept it close by forcing IUPUI into six turnovers.
UNO fell behind 30-12 with 3:26 remaining in the half, before cutting into the lead. Taijhe Kelly hit a pair of free throws and made a layup as Omaha responded with a 7-0 run to make it an 11-point game with just under 90 seconds to play in the half. IUPUI answered the UNO run by scoring the final five points of the half to take a 36-20 lead.
IUPUI opened the second half with a 6-0 run to stretch the lead to 22 points (42-20) with 18:15 remaining in the game. Following a pair of Shaw free throws and two quick buckets from Davenport, Omaha cut the lead to 42-27 with 15:54 left in the game.
Following a Jaguar timeout, Shaw made another bucket in the paint and hit 1-of-2 free throws to cut the lead to 12 points (42-30) with 14:24 to go. The Mavs continued to surge as a Davenport 3-pointer cut the lead to 44-33.
IUPUI stopped the UNO comeback by going on a 9-2 run to extend the lead back to 18 points (55-37). Omaha made one last push as Shaw scored four quick points to make the score 55-41 with 7:08 left to play. That was as close as UNO could get as IUPUI ended the game on a 13-8 run to make the final score 68-49.
The Mavs shot 40.4 percent (19-of-47) from the floor, but hit only 25 percent (3-of-12) from 3-point distance. Omaha also made 72.7 percent (8-of-11) from the free throw line. IUPUI shot 44.2 percent (23-of-52) from the floor and 33.3 percent (4-of-12) from distance. The Jaguars hit 78.3 percent (18-of-23) from the charity stripe. Omaha was out rebounded by a 38-22 margin.
Omaha returns home for a pair of Summit League games next week. The Mavs host Oral Roberts on Wednesday, February 4 at 7:00 p.m. at the Sapp Fieldhouse. Western Illinois visits Omaha on Sunday, Feb. 8 at 2:00 p.m. Jon Green will have the radio call of Wednesday's game on "The Mighty" 1290 KOIL AM. Sunday's game will be aired on 1180 AM "Zone 2." Links to live stats, audio and video will be available on OMavs.com.
