FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- The Omaha men's basketball team staged a late rally but was just short in its bid to tighten the Summit League title race Saturday night, falling 94-90 to Fort Wayne at Gates Sports Center. The Mavericks are now 17-12 (9-6 Summit League), while the league-leading Mastodons improve to 22-7 (11-3 Summit League).

Junior guard Tra-Deon Hollins led all scorers with 24 points, shooting 10-of-18 with two 3-pointers for his fourth 20-point scoring performance of the season. The Omaha Central product added five rebounds, game highs of seven assists and four steals plus one block.

Senior guard/forward Randy Reed II scored a career-high 19 points off the bench, hitting 9-of-11 from the field with while grabbing five boards. Senior forward Jake White added 16 points and six rebounds, and senior guard Kyler Erickson had 12 points on a trio of 3-pointers, four caroms and two assists. Sophomore forward Tre'Shawn Thurman rounded it out with 11 points, a team-high nine rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block.

Fort Wayne was led by DeAngelo Stewart's 23 points with five 3-pointers and nine rebounds, while John Konchar had a double-double on 19 points and 14 rebounds. Max Landis (20), Michael Calder (19) and Joe Reed (10) also had double-figure scoring outings.

After Fort Wayne opened to a 7-0 lead, it used another 9-0 run to go ahead 16-5. The Mastodons then surged to a 14-point lead, 23-9, on a Konchar jumper with 11:34 to go. UNO pulled within six twice -- first at 27-21 on a Thurman jumper and again on a Reed layup at 31-25. IPFW took to a 14-point advantage again with an 11-3 stretch from 6:33 to 4:57.

Omaha outshot IPFW 50 percent to 47 percent in the first 20 minutes, but the Mastodons went to the foul line 19 times and made all but one shot, with Konchar hitting 7-of-7 and Landis going 5-of-5 at the stripe. The Mavericks, meanwhile, were limited to a 3-of-4 effort at the line but hit seven 3-pointers to stay in the game, with IPFW leading 54-44 at the break.

White started the second half by knocking down a 3-pointer, but IPFW went on a 10-1 run bookended by two Stewart 3-pointers to lead 64-48 at 16:57. Omaha whittled it back to a seven-point deficit at 64-57 after Hollins' third steal of the night and layups on back-to-back possessions. After the Mastodons went ahead by double digits again, five straight points from White cut the lead to 77-71 with 7:48 to go.

A Reed dunk with 6:34 left then trimmed it to 79-75, and his block with a jumper on the end made it 81-78 IPFW at 4:52. The Mavericks continued to chip away at the Mastodon lead for the next three minutes, with Patterson nailing a triple on an assist from Erickson that pulled UNO within three at 88-85. Hollins then grabbed his fourth steal and took it down for a layup, drawing a foul from Calder and hitting his free throw to even the game at 88-88 with 1:32 left.

Calder followed with a three-point play to make it 91-88, but Hollins took over again with a reverse layup to get Omaha back within one at 91-90 with 53.6 seconds on the clock. On the next play, Calder missed a jumper with 39 seconds left, but Hollins was called for a charge with 17.4 seconds to go and Landis hit a pair of free throws to put IPFW up 93-90. Joe Reed then went to the line and hit one foul shot with 1.9 seconds left, extending the score to 94-90, which held as the final tally.

Omaha returns to action for its final regular-season game on Thursday, Feb. 25, hosting Oral Roberts. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at Baxter Arena, and UNO will honor its five seniors with pregame festivities. Gary Sharp and Grant Nieland will have the radio call on 1180 Zone 2, and links to live stats, audio and video will be available on OMavs.com.