Box Score OMAHA, Neb. – The Omaha men's basketball team closed the Ralston Arena era Thursday night, falling 81-78 to Oral Roberts. The Mavericks are now 9-17 (3-11 Summit League), while the Golden Eagles improve to 15-12 (8-5 Summit League).

Junior guard Devin Patterson led the Mavericks with 23 points for his sixth 20-point performance of the season. The Portsmouth Va., native shot 6-of-12 from the field, including 2-of-3 from long range, and hit 9-of-10 at the free throw line.

Senior guard CJ Carter, playing the final home game of his career, contributed 18 points with three rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks. Freshman forward Tre'Shawn Thurman pulled down a team-high nine rebounds and added 11 points and a game-high three blocks. Junior forward Jake White also registered 11 points and had seven boards with a pair of assists, two steals and two blocks.

As a team, Omaha shot .441 (26-of-59) from the field to Oral Roberts' .419 (23-of-34), but ORU narrowly outrebounded the Mavericks, 40-38. UNO finished with 11 blocks for the night, the most of any Derrin Hansen-coached team and the highest total since the Mavericks had 10 against Augustana on Jan. 6, 2005.

Oral Roberts was paced by Korey Billbury's double-double on 14 points and 10 rebounds. Obi Emegano led the Golden Eagles in scoring with a game-high 28 points, and Denell Henderson contributed 11 points with eight rebounds.

Oral Roberts looked to Emegano early, as he accounted for seven of the Golden Eagles' first 13 points  of the game for a 13-7 lead. The Mavericks responded with a 7-0 run to go ahead 14-13, then took went up 22-17 – their largest lead of the half – at 9:44. ORU surged to a 37-29 lead on an Emegano dunk and a 3-pointer from Harris with 3:27 on the clock. Omaha cut the margin to three in the final minute of the half, as a triple and a jumper by Patterson kept Oral Roberts' lead at 43-40 by the break.

UNO came out to tie it in the second half at 46-46 on a Carter layup and again at 49-49 with a Carter trey. After the Golden Eagles went ahead, a Reed layup put Omaha up again by one, but the game stalled twice more to bring it to 55-all at 11:30. Over the next seven minutes, Henderson came alive for ORU, scoring seven of his 11 total points. His back-to-back shots pushed ORU ahead 72-68, and a Billbury layup made it 74-69 with 3:13 to go. Reed answered immediately with a layup to trim the lead to three, but Oral Roberts made it a six-point game again with an Aaron Young foul shot.

Layups by Patterson and Carter pushed it to 77-76 with 0:47 to go, and Patterson hit a pair of free throws with 0:05 left to make it a one-point game one last time. Adrion Webber, however, drained two free throws at 0:04, and a final full-court heave by Thurman just missed, sealing the game for ORU with a score of 81-78.

Omaha returns to action on Thursday, Feb. 26, traveling to Fort Wayne. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. (CT) in Fort Wayne, Ind., and the game will be broadcast on 1180 zone 2 with Gary Sharp on the call. Links to live stats, audio and video will be available on OMavs.com.