OMAHA, Neb. - Riding a four-game winning streak, the Omaha women's basketball squad returns from a west coast road trip to host Sacramento State in the final game of the Big Sky/Summit Challenge. 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 (5-4, 0-0) completed a three-game road sweep by running past Portland State 65-57 Wednesday night. Last weekend they won both games in the San Diego Thanksgiving Classic over the host Toreros (70-66) and Utah Valley Wolverines (51-43), completing the first three-game road streak under head coach Carrie Banks. The 5-4 start is also the best in Banks' five seasons.
Omaha last won four straight from 11/7 to 12/6 in 2017 when they reeled off seven straight wins.
• Senior Grace Cave leads the Mavericks in scoring with 12.8 ppg (4.6 rpg, 3.8 apg, 1.9 spg). Senior transfer Ja Harvey is second on the team with 9.4 ppg (3 rpg, 3.4 apg, 2 spg) with a team-best 1.26 assist-to-turnover ratio. Sophomore Cora Olsen is third in scoring (8.6 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 entered the week second in the Summit League and 49th in the nation in three-point shooting (36%). Cave leads the team in threes (13-43, 30%), followed by fifth-year Katie Keitges (12-34, 35%) and sophomore Ali Stephens (10-19, 53%),
• Heading into the Big Sky-Summit Challenge, Ford leads the conference in total rebounds (69), despite averaging just 17.4 minutes per game. She was 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).
• 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 965 career points, Grace is 35 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 35 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.
• Katie Keitges: With 106 career 3-pters, Katie is 34 shy of the top 10 in school history, and sixth place in DI Era. With 3 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-HORNETS HISTORY
• This is the first meeting between Omaha and Sacramento State. After beating Kansas City 74-57 Wednesday to open the Big Sky/Summit Challenge, Sacramento State's 6-3 start to the 2024-25 campaign is the program's best since the Hornets opened the 2022-23 season with a 7-2 record through nine games en route to a Big Sky Conference regular season and tournament title and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
• Senior transfer Jaydia Martin scored a Sacramento State career-high 31 points against Kansas City, 22 in the second half.
• They have two players leading them in scoring, Lina Falk (12.9 ppg) and Katie Peneueta (12.2 ppg).
• Head coach Aaron Kallhoff, a native of Norfolk, Nebraska, is in his second season at the helm with a career record of 12-28. He was an assistant coach at LSU when Omaha assistant coach Jaelyn Richard Harris was a player for the Tigers.
LISTEN/WATCH/FOLLOW
Omaha's games can be heard on the Omaha Sports Network from Learfield via the Varsity Network app/website. Saturday's game is available on radio in Omaha at 1180 am. Brent Weber handles the play-by-play for the Mavericks. The FNBO Pregame Show begins at 1:45 pm CT. All Mavericks home games can be seen on the Summit League Network.
Links are available on the OMavs.com
schedule page.
Tickets are available for all Mavericks home games at OMavs.com/tix.
