FARGO, N.D. – The Omaha women's basketball team never trailed Wednesday night, overwhelming North Dakota State 80-60 at the Scheels Center. With the win, the Mavericks improved to 9-10 (2-4 Summit League), while the Bison dropped to 5-14 (3-3 Summit League).
Senior forward Michaela Dapprich led all scorers with 21 points, shooting 8-of-13 from the floor including five 3-pointers, with seven rebounds and two steals.
Senior forward Mikaela Shaw added 13 points, 7 rebounds, five assists and a steal. She finished 6-of-11 from the field. Sophomore center Courtney Vaccher had 13 points and four boards. Junior guard Marissa Preston registered 11 points with the help of three 3-pointers and four assists.
Senior guard Abi Lujan and sophomore guard Ellie Brecht each had six points, with Lujan credited for four rebounds and three assists.
Anna Goodhope led North Dakota State with 15 points off the bench on 6-of-8 shooting from the floor. Taylor Thunstedt added 12 points and six rebounds. Brianna Jones grabbed a game-high eight rebounds.
As a team, Omaha shot 46 percent (39-of-63) from the floor to North Dakota State's 36.7 percent (22-of-60). UNO finished 36.7 percent (11-for-30) behind the arc, while NDSU came in at 20.8 percent (5-of-24). The Mavericks shot 78.6 percent (11-of-14) from the line, while the Bison managed 64.7 percent (11-of-17). UNO also led in assists, 21-10, and in steals, 9-4.
The Mavericks hit four of their first five shots to open the game to lead 9-3 at 7:06. Omaha went ahead by nine points after Dapprich hit her second 3-pointer of the period with 1:14 left. Vaccher's layup with five seconds left in the quarter made the score 19-10 after the first 10 minutes of play.
Five points from Goodhope to start the second quarter cut Omaha's lead to six points with 7:32 left in the first half. Preston answered with three 3-pointers in a span of 61 seconds to push UNO's advantage to 15 points. NDSU managed to bring the lead back down to 11 points twice in the period but was unable to get closer. The Mavericks held a 40-28 advantage at intermission.
Omaha opened the second half on a 13-2 run to push its lead to 23 points, 53-20. A 3-pointer from Goodhope momentarily stopped the UNO run midway through the quarter. A pair of free throws from freshman forward Jay Bridgeman and two more from Preston started another run. Back-to-back treys from Dapprich moved Omaha's lead to 30 points with 3:17 left in the period. After three quarters of play, Omaha held a 67-38 advantage over North Dakota State.
The Maverick momentum carried over into the fourth quarter as the lead grew to 33 points with 7:01 remaining, 73-40. North Dakota State responded with a 10-0 spurt cutting the UNO lead to 23 with 5:32 to go. However, a 3-pointer from junior guard Remy Davenport and a layup from Shaw stemmed the comeback attempt. Thunstedt made four straight free throws in the final minute of play to make the final score 80-60 in Omaha's favor.
Omaha returns to action on Saturday, Jan. 21 at Denver. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. CT at Magness Arena in Denver, Colo., and Donny Baarns will have the radio call on 1180 Zone 2, and links to live stats, audio and video will be available on OMavs.com.
