PORTLAND, Ore.- After sweeping two games in the San Diego Thanksgiving Classic, the Omaha women's basketball squad wraps up their west coast road trip at Portland State (3-2) in the Big Sky/Summit Challenge. The Mavs then return home to complete the challenge Saturday against Sacramento State at Baxter Arena. It is one of just two games remaining at home before the 2024 calendar flips to a new year and the start of Summit League play. 

The Mavericks (4-4, 0-0) have claimed three straight wins and two in a row away from home after sweeping the San Diego Toreros (70-66) and Utah Valley Wolverines (51-43) in the San Diego Thanksgiving Classic. 

In Saturday's game two at Jenny Craig Pavilion, the Mavericks led by as many as 17 points in downing UVU. Grace Cave had 13 pts, 5 assists and 4 rebounds while Morgann Gardner had 8 pts and 4 steals in Omaha's second-lowest scoring game of the season. The win marked the first three-game win streak for Omaha since the stretch run of the 2022-23 season when they claimed victories in the first two rounds of the Summit League Tournament before falling in the championship game to SDSU. 

The 4-4 start to Omaha's  season equals the best under Carrie Banks when they opened 2022-2023 4-4 en route to a 15-17 campaign.

• Cave leads the Mavericks in scoring with 13.1 ppg (4.6 rpg, 3.8 apg, 1.9 spg). Senior transfer Ja Harvey is second on the team with 9.2 ppg (2.7 rpg, 3.7 apg, 1.5 spg) with a team-best 1.47 assist-to-turnover ratio. Sophomore Cora Olsen is third in scoring (8.8 ppg),  followed by freshman Harriet Ford (8.3 ppg) with a team best 8.8 rpg while making 50% of her shots from the floor. 

• Omaha is second in the Summit League and 49th in the nation in three-point shooting (36%). Senior Grace Cave leads the team in threes (13-40, 33%), followed by fifth-year Katie Keitges (11-32, 35%) and sophomore Ali Stephens (9-18, 50%),

• Ford leads the conference in total rebounds (69), despite averaging just 17.4 minutes per game. She is second in the conference in offensive rebounds per game (4.1) and 26th in the nation. She is the only Maverick to post two double-doubles this season (back-to-back games (11/7 vs. St. Mary, 20 pts, 15 reb, and 11/10 vs. Western Illinois, 18 pts, 13 reb). 

• Harvey's 1.47 assist-turnover ratio is second-best in the Summit League.

• Omaha's 70.3 ppg is third highest in the Summit League and ranks 122nd nationally. 

• Several Mavericks are making a dent in the record book, particularly stats relating to the school's transition into NCAA DI beginning in 2011, reflecting only players whose entire career has been in the DI Era. 

• Grace Cave: With 955 career points, Grace is 45 shy of becoming the 28th in school history to reach 1,000 career points. Most impressively, Cave would be the fourth to do so in Omaha DI history. Grace is 39 shy of becoming just the second playing exclusively in the DI Era to reach 300 assists (Mikaela Shaw, 314 assists, 2013-2017). She has 106 career three-pointers.

• Morgann Gardner: With 18-45 career 3 pt. shooting, Gardner's 40% (min. 15 made) ranks 6th all-time and third in the DI Era.

• Katie Keitges: With 105 career 3-pters, Katie is 45 shy of the top 10 in school history, and sixth place in DI Era. With3 threes against Wisconsin, she became the fourth in the DI Era to reach 100 3-pters.  Her 55 3-pters made in 2023-2024 rank seventh in the DI Era and 11th all-time.

MAVERICKS-VIKINGS HISTORY
This is the first meeting between the two programs.

SCOUTING PORTLAND STATE

• This is the first meeting between Omaha and Portland State. The Vikings have claimed three straight wins (67-57 @ Seattle, 11/16; 61-52 H vs. Cal State Fullerton, 11/24; 66-61 H vs. UC Davis, 11/30).  

• Last time out, the Vikings beat UC Davis 66-61 while erasing a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit, marking the program's

second-largest fourth-quarter comeback in school history.

• They are led by Alaya Fitzgerald with 12.2 points per game this season, ranking her 10th in the Big Sky. 

• Head coach Chelsey Gregg is in her 4th season as head coach with a career record of 31-65. They were picked to finish 9th in the Big Sky Preseason Poll.

LISTEN/WATCH/FOLLOW
Omaha's games can be heard on the Omaha Sports Network from Learfield.  Brent Weber handles the play-by-play for the Mavericks. The pregame for both broadcasts begins at 15:00 prior to the tip-off with the FNBO Pregame Show. Wednesday's will be televised on ESPN+ while all Mavericks home games can be seen on the Summit League Network. 

Live Stats for Portland State are available here.
Links are available on the OMavs.com schedule page.
Tickets are available for all Mavericks home games at OMavs.com/tix.