OMAHA, Neb. - The Mavericks opened their final homestand of the season with a commanding 91-84 victory over South Dakota to sweep the season series for the first time since the 2018-19 season.
Omaha remains in the thick of the hunt for the No. 1 seed with two games to go as they end the day at 13-14 overall and 6-6 in the Summit League. As for the Coyotes, they remain in last place in the conference at 10-16 and 3-8 in league play.
Leaders for Omaha
Marquel Sutton had his fourth double-double of the season as he led Omaha with 11 rebounds and scored 14 points. Frankie Fider was the team' leading scorer with 23 points, while
JJ White (18),
Nick Davis (12), and
Jaeden Marshall (10) all scored double figures too.
Leaders for South Dakota
Both Bostyn Holt (22) and Lahat Thiuone (20) topped 20 points tonight to lead USD, while Kaleb Stewart (18) and Paul Bruns (14) both scored double-digits.
Team Stats
Both teams shot over 50% tonight on field goals, with South Dakota just edging out Omaha 56.1% to 53.1%. USD also led in 3-PT FG% (50.0% to 38.1%) and FT% (76.9% to 71.4%). Omaha was able to make up the difference though in second chance points (18 to 7), fast break points (12 to 4), and on rebounds (31 to 27).
Inside the First Half
Trailing 15-14 through the first six and a half minutes, the Mavericks quickly got hot as
Jamal Ambrose came in off the bench and immediately drained back-to-back threes to make it 20-15. Marshall then tacked on his first three of the day, followed by a jumper from Sutton to put Omaha up by 10 at 10:53.
Though the Coyotes managed to cut Omaha's lead to three over the next few minutes, a pair of slam dunks from Fidler and Sutton brought the momentum back to the Mavericks as they soon took a 40-30 lead with 3:06 to go. Down the stretch Fidler added another five points while Davis, with five layups in the half, made two from the line to send Omaha to the locker room up 47-38.
Inside the Second Half
Despite three early buckets from White, Marshall, and Fidler, by 14:30 in the second USD cut Omaha's lead down to two points as Thioune logged another 12 points. The Coyotes would continue to claw their way back, eventually retaking the lead for the first time since the first half at 59-58 with just under 11 minutes left.
Both teams would begin trading leads, starting with two from the line from
Grant Stubblefield to put Omaha back on top 60-59 at the 10-minute mark, while a layup from Davis a minute later made it 62-61. With eight minutes left the score was again tied 66-66, White nailed his first three-pointer of the night, before sinking another one right after a three from USD to make it 72-69 at 6:20.
Under five minutes left to play and tied at 72-72, Fidler made two from the stripe followed by and-one from him and White to grow Omaha's lead to 80-72 at 2:58. After USD broke Omaha's 8-0 run, Marshall knocked down another three with 2:30 remaining to get the lead back to nine. From there, all that was left was for the Mavericks to run out the clock and complete the series sweep.
Game Notes
- Fidler has officially broken into the top 10 on Omaha's all-time scoring list as he ends the night with 1365 points, bringing him from 12th place to 9th place. He also becomes the seventh Maverick in the Division I era and the first since Zach Jackson in 2018-19 to top 500 points in a season.
- With his 14th double-digit scoring game of the year, Davis topped 250 points on the season (252).
- Marshall now has eight games with 10+ points this season.
Up Next
The Mavericks have their final Saturday night game at Baxter of the season this weekend when they host South Dakota State in a 7 p.m. game on Alumni Night.
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