St. Paul, Minn. – The Omaha Mavericks had a close 88-83 game with the St. Thomas Tommies, but fell just short. Despite having the lead at the half, St. Thomas blew past Omaha in the third.
Omaha falls to a 5-17 overall on the season and is now 1-8 in conference play.
Leaders For Omaha
Omaha was led in scoring by
Grace Cave with 17 points, going 6-of-14 from the field and 4-of-8 from the arc. Also recording double-digits were
Aaliyah Stanley (15),
Morgann Gardner (13),
Ana Nikulochkina (11), and
Deanay Watson (10). Cave and
Lucy Ghaifan both contributed a team-high six assists. Leading in rebounds was Watson with six.
Leaders for St. Thomas
Amber Scalia had a team-high 30 points and Sammy Opichka led the Tommies with nine rebounds. Jade Hill notched a team-high seven assists and three steals.
Team Stats
Omaha was outshot on the field 45.8% (27-of-59) to 54.2% (32-of-59). Though Omaha trailed percentage-wise to the Tommies, 43.3% vs. 66.7%, the Mavericks made more three-pointers (13-of-30 vs. 10-of-15). Same circumstances for free throws Omaha made more but trailed in shot percentage (76.2%, 16-of-21 vs. 87.5%, 14-of-16).
Inside the First Quarter
Cave got the game started with a three-pointer from the corner to give the Mavericks a 3-0 lead at 9:35. Back-to-back baskets by
Deanay Watson put Omaha up 7-4 then a three by Gardner gave the Mavericks a six-point lead at 7:07. Omaha then went back-and-forth with the Tommies but
Aaliyah Stanley drove a layup to pick up the lead 20-19 for Omaha to end the quarter.
After giving up seven straight points, the Tommies crawled their way back and tied it up at 11. Amber Scalia made a layup to take the lead from the Mavericks. The most St. Thomas was able to lead by in the first was three points, but gave that up in the final seconds.
Inside the Second Quarter
Cave opened up the second with back-to-back three-pointers to put Omaha up 26-21. The twins were synced up in the second. P. Nikulochkina assisted A. Nikulochkina's three at 7:02 to give Omaha a five-point lead. P. Nikulochkina followed with another three-pointer for the six-point lead. Omaha maintained the lead throughout the whole quarter and ended it up by five.
The Tommies kept close with the Mavericks in the second but were never able to take the lead. St. Thomas tied it up at 8:15 with a pair of free throws but then started to trail again. Sammy Opickina closed the gap to five at the end of the half after a layup. The Tommies gave up a total of five threes to the Mavericks in the second.
Inside the Third Quarter
The Mavericks had their slowest quarter only scoring 16 points. They found themselves with turnover troubles, limiting their scoring opportunities. Watson went a perfect 2-of-2 on the field and Cave added three essential assists.
The Tommies had their highest-scoring quarter with 34 points. They shot 12-of-18 from the field, 5-of-7 from the arc, and were 5-of-5 from the line in the third. They forced four of the six turnovers to give them two more shot attempts than Omaha. They took the lead back early in the third and grew it to 13 by the end of the quarter.
Inside the Fourth Quarter
Omaha worked their way back by scoring 20 in the final frame of the game. They sunk seven free throws and three three-pointers. A. Nikulochkina had a stellar quarter, scoring eight points off one three and five of the seven free throws.
The Mavericks held the Tommies to their lowest-scoring quarter with only 12. St. Thomas only made six free rebounds and had six turnovers. From the field St. Thomas only made 4-of-11 field goals. Though they had their lowest-scoring quarter they had enough of a lead coming into the fourth that they kept the lead through the end of the game.
Next Up
The Mavericks will take a week then host North Dakota on Thursday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. at Baxter.
