BROOKINGS, S.D. - A promising first half for Omaha gave way to Summit League reality as defending champion South Dakota State University outscored the Mavericks 26-12 in the third quarter en route to a 93-55 win in women's basketball Thursday night in Brookings, South Dakota.
The Jackrabbits (13-3, 3-0) have won 50 straight Summit League regular season games. The Mavericks (9-5, 1-1) must now bounce back quickly as they travel to Vermillion, S.D. to face the University of South Dakota in their next conference clash. The Coyotes (8-9, 2-1) defeated St. Thomas (8-8, 0-3) 77-60 at USD Thursday night.
Playing in front of 2,074 fans at the newly renovated First Bank & Trust Arena, SDSU scored the game's first 10 points and never trailed. But Omaha gathered their game and outscored SDSU 35-33 over the next 17 minutes to cut the lead to 43-35 at halftime. Omaha senior transfer and Peak Newcomer of the Month
Ja Harvey scored five straight points in the first to spark the Mavs comeback, finishing with 7 points, 2 assists and 3 steals. Struggling on the boards at the outset, Omaha inserted freshman
Harriet Ford into the lineup late in the first quarter, and the freshman from Western Australia made all six of her shots from the field and finished with 12 points to lead the Mavericks. Ford missed the previous six games with a back injury and was limited to 8:13 in playing time in her first game back.
Coming out of halftime, SDSU's defense quickly put the game out of reach, limiting Omaha to 3 of 11 shooting in the third quarter, forcing 4 turnovers while committing none. For the game, the Jackrabbits had four players in double figures, led by Brooklyn Meyer with 21 points and 10 rebounds.
Fifth year guard
Katie Keitges hit three three pointers and finished with 9 points, as did
Cora Olsen who also had 4 rebounds. Senior
Grace Cave had 5 points, 5 assists and 2 rebounds.
In a season including a seven-game winning streak and equaling their winningest non-league schedule in more than a decade, the Mavericks 9-6 mark after 15 games has been bettered just once in the school's DI Era, when they started the season 11-4 in 2012-2013. Omaha returns to action against South Dakota in Vermillion Saturday afternoon, January 11 at 1 p.m. CT.
Omaha returns home to Baxter Arena January 16 to face North Dakota State and January 18 to host St. Thomas. Tickets to all Mavericks home games can be purchased at OMavs.com/tix.
All Summit League games, home and away, are televised on The Summit League Network. Omaha games can be heard on the radio via the Omaha Mavericks Network, as well as The Varsity Network app or website from Learfield. Details can be found on the OMavs.com schedule page for broadcast specifics and links.
Brent Weber is the play-by-play voice of Mavericks women's basketball.
Connect with Omaha women's basketball on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram,
@OmahaWBB.
