TULSA, Okla. - The Mavericks began their final road trip of the month with a loss on Thursday as they were defeated 74-67 by reigning Summit League Champion Oral Roberts.
Omaha drops to 10-12 on the year and 3-4 in the Summit League, falling below .500 in league play for the first time since the conference opener vs. Denver back on December 29. As for the Golden Eagles, they are now 9-11 and are tied with the Mavericks at 3-4 in conference play.
Leaders for Omaha
Four Mavericks were in double figures tonight, paced by Fidler with 19 after leading the team with three from behind the arc and six from the line.
Marquel Sutton had the most field goals on the team after shooting 8-for-17 for 17 points, along with a team-high three steals and eight boards.
JJ White (14 points) and
Nick Davis (10) rounded out the quartet.
Leaders for Oral Roberts
Issac McBride was ORU's leading scorer with a game-high 22 points on six field goals and eight free throws. Jailen Bedford was right behind him with 19 points as well as leading the Golden Eagles with eight rebounds.
Team Stats
The Mavericks were outshot by the Golden Eagles in each category tonight, trailing in FG% (42.1% to 39.7%), 3-PT FG% (40.0% to 26.1%) and FT% (87.5% to 78.6%). Rebounds were closer, the Omaha trailing by just six at 40 to 34, while the Mavericks held a strong lead in second chance points (13 to 2) and points off turnovers (12 to 8).
Inside the First Half
The Mavericks struck first on a quick layup from Sutton a minute in and remained on top for nearly the entire half. Five minutes in Omaha led 10-6 thanks to two buckets from Davis, who also fed one to Sutton for a dunk at 15:49. Though ORU managed to tie it 12-12 with just over 11 minutes remaining, a driving layup from
Grant Stubblefield followed by four more Maverick points put them up by six with nine minutes to go.
The Golden Eagles continued to fight back, however, eventually tying the game at 20-20 at 6:08 and taking their first lead of the night 90 seconds later off a three-pointer from Bedford. White finally broke a five-minute Mavericks scoring drought when he got off a jumper just in time to make it 22-26. Unfortunately, ORU remained hot in the closing minutes of the period, entering halftime up 34-22.
Inside the Second Half
After going the whole first half without a three-pointer, the Mavericks got two within the first two minutes thanks to Fidler and
Tony Osburn. Fidler would drain another one with 13:12 to go, getting Omaha back within nine at 46-37. Despite another Dunk from Sutton and two more jumpers from Fidler, the Mavericks could not slow down the Golden Eagles as they soon found themselves trailing 57-43 with under 10 to play.
Over the final seven minutes, though, the Mavericks mounted a huge comeback attempt, starting with the third triple from Fidler at 6:36 followed by the third dunk from Sutton 30 seconds later to cut ORU's lead to 56-50. One more bucket from Sutton made it 69-64 with 43 seconds left, but this was as close as the Mavericks would get as ORU just hung on for the win.
Game Notes
- The Mavericks only committed two fouls in the entire first half.
- This is the first multi-block game of White's career.
- Fidler extends his double-digit points streak to 16 games and now has 1252 career points, putting him just two away from reaching 16th all-time at Omaha.
Up Next
Omaha closes out the month of January by opening the second half of conference play at Denver this Saturday at 3 p.m. (CT).
