DeLand, FLA. - The Mavericks began their stretch of seven straight road games with a win tonight as they took down 2024 NCAA Tournament participant Stetson 79-76. With this win, Omaha has snapped a 24-game losing streak against non-conference opponents on the road (excluding neutral sites) dating back 1433 days to December 5, 2020.
The Mavericks are now 2-0 on the season, while the Hatters are now .500 at 1-1.
Leaders for Omaha
The star of the night was
Marquel Sutton who turned in one of the best performances of his career with 25 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 field goals made.
Lance Waddles also scored in double figures with 15 points and was second on the team with eight boards.
On defense,
Kamryn Thomas had two of the most pivotal plays of the game, recording a block in each half.
Team Stats
The Mavericks were actually outshot from the field tonight at .408 (29-for-71) to .475 (29-for-61). Omaha did hold the edge though in 3-PT FG% at .385 (10-for-26) to .333 (9-for-27) and in FT% at .846 (11-for-13) to .500 (9-for-18).
Inside the First Half
Initially trailing 8-7 four minutes in, the Mavericks soon took the lead on a jumper from Sutton and never looked back. A trey from
JJ White at 13:13 gave Omaha its largest lead yet at 17-12, before back-to-back three from Waddles, the second of which already put him in double figures, soon grew the lead to 23-16 with just over 10 minutes to play.
Tony Osburn would be the one to grow the Mavericks lead to double digits when he drained his first three of the night at 7:44 to make it 33-22. With 3:27 on the clock, White blew through the lane to make a driving layup followed by the and-one to give Omaha its biggest lead yet at 45-33. Though Stetson got hot over the last three minutes and managed to cut the lead back down to four, White capped off the half with one last three with a couple seconds to spare to send it to half time 48-41.
Inside the Second Half
The Mavericks came out strong out of the locker room as they outscored Stetson 13-2 over the first five minutes, including nine-straight points from Sutton to put him at 20 points on the night.
Joshua Streit finished the run with a turnaround jumper to grow the lead to 20 points at 63-43.
Over the next 10 minutes, the Hatters gradually chipped away at Omaha's lead, eventually getting it back down to 10 at 77-67 with five minutes to play. Later, with less than two minutes remaining, Stetson cut the lead down even further to 77-74. Sutton, though, came through one last time to put the game out of reach for Stetson with his third dunk of the night with 1:38 on the clock.
Game Notes
- The Mavericks only turned the ball over five times tonight, fewer than all but one game last year (Feb. 22 vs. Oral Roberts).
- This is the fifth double-double of Sutton's career.
- All nine Mavericks who played tonight recorded at least one rebound.
Up Next
The Mavericks end their first week of the season up in Minneapolis on Saturday when they play Minnesota at 2:30 p.m.
