OMAHA, Neb. - In the opening game of the first ever Big Sky-Summit Challenge, the Mavericks led for nearly the entire night as they defeated Northern Arizona 81-55 in Baxter Arena.

Omaha is back to .500 on the season as the team moves to 8-8. As for the Lumberjacks, they fall to two under at 6-8 on the year.

Leaders for Omaha 
Frankie Fidler continues his hot streak as he turned in his third straight 20-point performance, shooting 5-for-13 and going 10-for-11 on free throws for 22 points. Tony Osburn was second on the team with 14 points while recording a team-high three steals. Nick Davis rounded out the team's double-digit scorers with 13 points and also paced Omaha with eight rebounds and two blocks.

Leaders for Northern Arizona 
Oakland Fort (11 points) and Carson Basham (10 points) were NAU's only players in double digits, with Fort's four field goals being the most on the team and Basham's four free throws also being their most. Basham was first on the team in steals with two, while Jayden Jackson was first in rebounds with seven.

Team Stats 
Once again, Omaha led the opposition in every shooting category, holding the edge in FG% (54.3% to 36.0%), 3-PT FG% (33.3% to 26.3%), and FT% (72.7% to 60.9%). The Mavericks also had a sizable lead in rebounds at 39 to 25, as well as steals (8 to 5) and blocks (4 to 1).

Inside the First Half 
The Mavericks had another fast start as they scored 20 unanswered to take a 24-9 lead just over 10 minutes in. Fidler racked up seven points during this run, while Davis and JJ White both had four.

However, Omaha slowed down over the final nine minutes, getting just seven more points in the half. Three of those points came on an Osburn three-pointer at 8:27. Meanwhile, the Lumberjacks went on a tear, at one point scoring 10 in a row as they cut Omaha's lead to just one heading into the second half.

Inside the Second Half 
It did not take long for the Mavericks to recover as two layups in the first two minutes from Davis jump-started Omaha's offense. Jamal Ambrose later made his first career three-pointer at 17:46 after Marquel Sutton swatted away a Lumberjack layup into the arms of Osburn who made the feed to Ambrose.

Though Northern Arizona was able to hang on through the first five minutes, keeping Omaha to a 40-37 lead, an 11-0 Mavericks scoring run featuring seven free throws put them up by 14 with 12 minutes left to play. Another three from Osburn gave the team its largest lead yet at 61-45 with 8:08 remaining, before four points from Ja'Sean Glover later put Omaha up by 17 at 5:27. Shortly after, Fidler, in the middle of a 10-0 run for Omaha, delivered the dagger with a shot from deep to give Omaha a 20-point lead with less than five minutes to go.

Game Notes 
- This was the third time this year the Mavericks shot over 50% as a team and their second highest FG% yet this year behind their 55.6% mark vs. York.
- Fidler continues his march up the Omaha all-time scoring list as he moves into 23rd place with 1124 career points.
- For Osburn, this was his fourth double-digit scoring game of the season, and for Davis it was his eighth. Osburn also has seven games now this year with multiple three-pointers, while Davis has his third straight and fifth overall multi-block game.

Up Next 
The Mavericks play their second and final game of the Big Sky-Summit Challenge this Saturday at 6 p.m. (MT)/7 p.m. (CT) when they head to Idaho Falls, Idaho to face Idaho State.