This Weekend
The Omaha women's basketball team makes its home debut this Friday, Nov. 25, welcoming Indiana State. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. at Baxter Arena, and Donny Baarns will have the radio call on 1180 Zone 2. Fans can stream audio on their smartphones by downloading NRG Media's app “1620 The Zone,” and links to live video, audio and stats will be available on OMavs.com.
Quick Hits
• Omaha opened the 2016-17 season with four games over 11 days, playing Colorado State (Nov. 11), Abilene Christian (Nov. 18), North Texas (Nov. 19) and Nebraska (Nov. 22).
• The Mavericks are currently 1-3 (0-0 Summit League) on the year after falling 66-58 at Nebraska on Tuesday evening.
• The Mavericks finished the 2015-16 season at 15-15 overall and 7-9 in the Summit League, finishing sixth in the conference.
• Omaha returns eight letterwinners from its 2015-16 team, including three starters in senior forward Mikaela Shaw, senior guard Abi Lujan and junior guard Remy Davenport.
• UNO was selected to finish fifth in the 2016-17 Preseason Summit League Coaches' Poll, and Shaw was named to Preseason All-Summit League First Team.
• So far this season, Shaw leads the Mavericks in points (15.3), rebounds (6.8), assists (4.8) and blocked shots (0.8)
• Michaela Dapprich averages 14.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game.
• The Mavericks will play a total of 29 games, including 13 contests at Baxter Arena.
• Omaha's non-conference schedule includes Colorado State, Creighton, Indiana State, Kansas State, Nebraska, UCF and Wofford.
• Brittany Lange is in her fourth season as head coach.
Scouting the Indiana State Sycamores
Indiana State is 2-2 (0-0 MVC) on the year after a 77-48 loss at Missouri on Tuesday evening. Forward Ashley Taia led the Sycamores with 11 points against Mizzou.
Overall, Wendi Bibbins leads ISU with 9.5 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. Tierra Webb contributes 9.3 points and 4.0 boards while Taia adds 8.8 points. Head coach Joey Wells is in his third season at Indiana State with a career mark of 32-32.
Series History
Friday is the second meeting between Omaha and Indiana State, with the Mavericks winning the only meeting last season in Terre Haute, 51-50.
Last Time Out: Nebraska Edges Mavericks, 66-58
The Omaha women's basketball team led a majority of the game but were unable to hold off a fourth-quarter comeback by Nebraska, falling 66-58 at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
Mikaela Shaw led the Mavericks, finishing with a game-high 19 points on 6-of-16 shooting from the field. Michaela Dapprich delivered 18 points on 8-of-18 shooting with two 3-pointers.
Junior guard Moriah Dapprich grabbed a team-high eight rebounds. Freshman forward Jay Bridgeman added five points and three boards.
Jessica Shepard led Nebraska with 17 points and nine rebounds. Allie Havers added nine points, 11 boards and two blocked shots. Hannah Whitish also finished in double figures with 10 points.
Omaha got out to a 7-0 lead in the opening moments on a layup and a 3-pointer from Shaw. Nebraska countered with a 7-0 run, capped by five quick points from Shepard. Dapprich drained back-to-back three's, and Shaw hit a pair of jumpers as Omaha closed the first quarter on a 12-0 run. UNO held a 21-9 lead entering the second period.
Nebraska opened the second with 10 straight to cut the UNO lead to two points, 21-19. Bridgeman put the Mavericks up four with a three-point play. The Cornhuskers edged in front with three straight 3-pointers, 28-27, with 3:09 remaining in the half. Omaha held Nebraska scoreless the rest of the quarter and pushed ahead on buckets from Bridgeman and Dapprich and took a 31-28 lead into halftime.
The Huskers sank three free throws to open the third period to draw even, 31-31. Three-pointers from Remy Davenport and Abi Lujan gave Omaha a five-point edge midway through the quarter. A late Nebraska surge sent the game to the fourth with the Huskers holding a 45-41 advantage.
A Dapprich jumper and two Shaw free throws cut the led to two points early in the fourth quarter. Nebraska pushed the lead back to six on a 3-pointer from Rylie Cascio Jensen. The Mavericks managed to come within three at 53-50 with a three-pointer from junior Marissa Preston, then again at 55-52 with a pair of free throws from Shaw. Though Omaha pulled within four with 2:48 remaining, the Huskers finished it off with a final score of 66-58.
Tough Enough
Omaha opened the 2016-17 season by playing three teams – Abilene Christian, Colorado State and Nebraska - that went to postseason tournaments. Abilene Christian and Colorado State won conference titles and had a combined record of 57-6 last year. CSU won the Mountain West and played in the NCAA National Tournament, while ACU won the Southland Conference regular-season title and appeared in the WNIT. Nebraska also earned a berth in the WNIT.
Shaw's Way
Through the first four games of the season, Mikaela Shaw leads the Mavericks in points (15.3), rebounds (6.8), assists (4.8), blocked shots (0.8) and minutes (35.8) per game. Shaw had a season-best 19 points against Nebraska on Tuesday evening. She set her season-best marks in rebounds (nine), assists (seven), blocks (two) and steals (two) against North Texas.
Big Night
Michaela Dapprich delivered a season-high 26 points on 10-of-19 shooting against North Texas. Dapprich added seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and a blocked shot. She followed up that performance with 18 points and two boards against Nebraska on Tuesday.
Doing It All
Remy Davenport has done a little bit of everything this year for Omaha. The junior guard is averaging 7.3 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game in the first month of the season. She had a season-best 12 points, five rebounds and five assists at Abilene Christian.
35 and Counting
Mikaela Shaw's season-high 19 points on Tuesday night marked the 35th consecutive game the forward has reached double-digits for the Mavericks. The last time she scored less than 10 points was Feb. 26, 2015 against Fort Wayne.
Great Start
Redshirt sophomore center Courtney Vaccher has averaged 5.5 points and 6.8 rebounds per game through her first three games this season. She grabbed eight boards against Abilene Christian and North Texas. Vaccher nabbed five caroms against Nebraska.
Sharp Shooter
Guard Marissa Preston went 3-of-3 from behind the 3-point line against North Texas and is shooting 57.1 percent from beyond the arc this season. The junior is averaging 6.5 points and 1.8 assists per game this season.
Top 10 Performer
Mikaela Shaw has cracked the top 10 in all-time scoring and rebounding this season. She passed Elaine Johnson (1974-77) for ninth place on the career scoring chart with 1,331 points and is closing in on Alyssa Green's (2006-9) 1,410 points for eighth place. Shaw passed Paige Frauendorfer (2009-12) for seventh place and needs 173 rebounds to catch Laura Anderson (1984-87) for sixth place.
Davenport from Downtown
Junior guard Remy Davenport averaged 10.3 points per game and was one of the top 3-point shooters in the Summit League last season. Davenport shot .371 (65-of-175) from downtown as a sophomore.
Davenport has made 135 career 3-pointers to rank sixth in program history. She connected on 65 3-pointers and set the UNO single-game record with 10 made treys against Denver on Jan. 17, 2016.
At a Glance: 2015-16
Omaha finished the 2015-16 season with a record of 15-15 (7-9 Summit League). Mikaela Shaw and former Maverick Caroline Hogue earned All-Summit League recognition, as Shaw garnered First-Team accolades and Hogue earned a spot on the All-Newcomer team.
In its first year after completing its transition to Division I, UNO picked up its first Summit League Tournament victory, defeating third-seeded IUPUI, 62-51.
As a team, Omaha led the Summit League with 5.8 blocks per game last year. The Mavericks were also first in free throw percentage (72.2) and second in opponents' field-goal percentage (38.5).
Meeting the Mavs
UNO returns three starters from the 2015-16 squad, including the Summit League's leading scorer and a First-Team All-Summit selection in senior forward Mikaela Shaw (18.3 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists), as well as senior guard Abi Lujan, and junior guard Remy Davenport (10.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg).
Returning are sophomore guards Ellie Brecht (5.7 ppg, 2.1 rpg), Sara Echelberry (1.2 ppg, 1.6 rpg), Kalen Phillips (2.5 ppg, 1.0 rpg) and Amber Vidal (5.9 ppg, 2.6 apg). Redshirt junior guard Marissa Preston appeared in 30 games with three starts and averaged 2.7 points per game last season.
Leader of the Pack
Senior forward Mikaela Shaw led the Mavericks in scoring (18.3 ppg), rebounding (7.9 rpg), assists (3.1 apg) and steals (1.6 spg). Shaw earned First Team All-Summit League honors and was a Third Team CoSIDA Academic All-American.
Last season, she became the 18th player in program history to score 1,000 career points and grab 500 career rebounds.
Dapprich Ready to Debut
Michaela Dapprich is ready to make the most of her senior season for the Mavericks. Before transferring to Omaha last season, Dapprich played a pivotal role as Wichita State won three regular season Missouri Valley Conference Championships, three MVC Tournament Champions and three NCAA Tournament berths.
Dapprich played in 95 games and made 72 starts in her career while averaging 9.8 points and 4.1 rebounds per game. She connected on 94 career 3-pointers, ranking eighth all-time in Wichita State history, plus her career 34.7 3-point field goal percentage ranks ninth on the all-time list.
Ready Redshirts
Along with Michaela Dapprich, the Mavericks will look for contributions from two other Division I transfers –redshirt junior guard Moriah Dapprich and redshirt sophomore center Courtney Vaccher – and freshman Jay Bridgeman.
Moriah Dapprich played two seasons for the Shockers, appearing in 46 games and averaged 1.6 points and 1.4 rebounds. Vaccher appeared in four games as a freshman at Texas Tech.
Shaw in the Summit
Mikaela Shaw earned Preseason All-Summit League First Team accolades for the second straight season. Shaw averaged 18.3 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.6 steals per game in 2015-16. As a junior, she was a first-team All-Summit League selection and named to the Summit League All-Tournament Team. Shaw led the Summit League in points per game and was second in total points (549).
Summit League Poll Released
Omaha was picked to finish fifth in the 2016-17 Summit League Preseason Poll; the conference office announced last month. The poll was tallied in a vote of the league's head coaches, communications personnel and media.
South Dakota State was the favorite to win the Summit League, garnering 30 first-place votes for 542 points. IUPUI was second with 438 points, while South Dakota earned three first-place votes and 393 points for third. Oral Roberts came in fourth with one first place vote and 391 points, followed by Omaha, which received 325 points for fifth. Western Illinois was sixth in the poll with 250 points, while North Dakota State (156), Denver (150) and Fort Wayne (80) rounded it out in seventh, eighth and ninth places, respectively.
Shaw Named to Academic All-America Third Team
Last season, Mikaela Shaw was a Third Team CoSIDA Academic All-American. Shaw became the fifth Academic All-American in Omaha women's basketball history, with Paige Frauendorfer being the first Academic All-American in the Division I era. Other women's basketball honorees include Laura Anderson (1988), Amy Loth (1997), and Stacie Kaiser (1997).
Omaha Basketball Schedule Set
UNO's 2016-17 schedule includes 29 games, and the team will play nine states against schools from eight other Division I conference. The schedule has two opponents from the Big 12 and one each from the AAC, BIG East, CIAA, MEAC, Missouri Valley, Mountain West, Southern and WAC. Three opponents – Colorado State, Kansas State and Summit League Tournament champion South Dakota State – played in the 2016 NCAA Tournament.
Getting to Know Coach Lange
Brittany Lange enters her fourth season as the head coach for the Mavericks and sixth with the pro-gram overall. Last season, UNO finished with a 15-15 overall record and earned the program's first berth into the Summit League Tournament as the sixth seed. In the tournament quarterfinals, Omaha upset third-seeded IUPUI, 62-51.
Lange's assistants are Lee Aduddell, Rodney Rogan, and Kirk Walker. Sadie Murren is in her first season as the director of basketball operations.
Up Next
Omaha returns to action on Sunday, Nov. 27, hosting Wofford at Baxter Arena. Tipoff is set for Noon, and Donny Baarns will have the call on 1180 Zone 2. Fans can stream the audio on their smartphones by downloading NRG Media's app “1620 The Zone,” and links to live stats, audio and video will be available on OMavs.com.
