OMAHA, NEB. - Coming off their first conference road win of the season, the Omaha women's basketball team returns to Baxter Arena for their final three home games of 2024-2025. The season-long three-game homestand begins with Wednesday night's 7:00 p.m. CT battle against Oral Roberts, currently 24th in this week's College Insider Mid-Major Poll. Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. CT, the Mavericks host Denver on Senior Day, also the annual Pink Out game, raising awareness for the fight against breast cancer. The Mavericks play their final home game of the season on Thursday February 20 at 7:00 p.m. CT against South Dakota.

Omaha (10-14, 2-9) ended a nine-game slide with a 65-56 win at Kansas City Saturday. For the twelfth time this season the Mavericks were led by Grace Cave, who finished with a career-high 29 points to move into 16th place in all-time scoring for the Mavericks with 1,184 points. With 20 more points she will move into second place in scoring during the Division I Era. The senior from Weeping Water also has 310 career assists, just four shy of the school's DI leader Mikaela Shaw (314 assists, 2013-2017). On the season she ranks fifth in the Summit League with 3.4 apg. 

Beginning with Wednesday's game against ORU (18-6, 8-3), Omaha has five games remaining during the Summit League regular season after a successful pre-league campaign when they reeled off seven straight wins in November/December that equaled the longest run of Omaha's NCAA D-I Era. Omaha's eight wins in the first half equal the most going into conference play since Omaha began formally competing for the Summit League crown (2012-2013). In the pre-conference portion of the schedule, Omaha went 8-4 in 2017-2018, 8-6 in 2013-2014 and 8-2 in 2012-2013. 

Cave continues to pace the Mavericks in scoring with a career-high 14.5 ppg to go along with 4.0 rebounds, 3.4 assists (5th in the Summit) and 1.7 steals per game (7th), followed by senior Ja Harvey at 13.0 ppg,  3.2 rpg, 2.72 apg (11th) and 1.83 spg (5th). Freshman Harriet Ford is coming off a career-high 17 rebounds, most by a Mavericks player since 2019 (Mariah Murdie, 18 rebounds vs. Purdue Fort Wayne, 2/16/19). She also scored 12 points, giving the center from Perth, Western Australia her team-leading third double-double on the season.

• On the season, Grace has posted a team-leading six 20+ scoring performances, leading the Mavs in scoring twelve times.  Her 1.03 assist to turnover ratio is eighth best in the Summit League. She is currently fifth in the conference in assists and seventh in steals per game, 10th in scoring and ninth in FG% (42.8%). 

• Against the Roos, Omaha welcomed back sparkplug Ja Harvey, who challenged Cave for team scoring honors before missing four games while under concussion protocol. Against Kansas City, Harvey trailed only Cave in scoring with 15 points on 5-10 shooting, including 2-2 threes. Harvey has led the Mavericks in scoring eight times this season, and her 13.0 average is 13th best in the conference. The senior from San Diego leads the team in three-point shooting percentage at 41%, including 45% (9-20) in league games. A two-time JUCO All-American, Harvey was named the Summit League Peak Newcomer of the Month for December, scoring double-digits in each game, leading the team in scoring three times and averaging a team-best 16.2 ppg during that span. In December, she led her team in points, ppg, field goals made and three pointers made, steals and minutes played while sinking 19 of 20 free throws. 

• Freshman Harriet Ford is third in scoring among active players, leading the team with 7.9 rebounds per game to go with 8.1 ppg and a team-leading 50.4% shooting from the field. Her rebound average is third-best in the Summit League, and her 17-rebound performance equals the most in a Summit League game this year with North Dakota's Kiera Pemberton (2/1). 

• Senior transfer Aaliyah Moore is fourth among active scorers and continues to be one of the team's most versatile performers, with 5.8 ppg, and 4.5 rpg while shooting 42% from the field. Starting 13 games, Moore has played in all 24 to this point, one of only three Mavericks to do so this season (Morgann Gardner, Katie Keiges). 

• With injuries taking a toll on the Omaha roster, Moore and sophomore Alana Powell have joined the starting lineup in recent games. Powell is averaging 13 ppg in her three starts, scoring double figures in each of those games including a career-high 17 at Oral Roberts. Moore has five double-figure games including two double-doubles this season (21/14 vs. St. Mary; 12/11 vs. Kansas City).

• With injuries piling up, the Mavericks roster is down to 11 active players, notably the losses of third-leading scorer sophomore Cora Olsen and freshman Paige Horne to season-ending injuries. Making the roster even thinner are day-to-day injuries to junior Lauren Perry, who started her second game as a Maverick against Kansas City, and Mar Vidal, a valuable defender and playmaker off the bench. 

• Against Bellevue University, Cave surpassed the 1,000 point plateau for her Mavericks career, the 29th in overall school history to do so. She since has moved up to 16th (1,184), with two former teammates within reach. Both Elena Pilakouta (1,201, 2018-2023) and Aaliyah Stanley (1,204, 2021-2024) are ahead in Division I Era scoring among players who played all their games since the school began the move to NCAA Division I in 2011. Mikaela Shaw's Division I total is out of reach (1,809, 2013-2017).

• Coming up on her ninth year as a member of the Army National Guard, Specialist Ja Harvey recently met with and was honored by Nebraska Adjutant General, Maj. Gen. Craig W. Strong, and State Command Sergeant Major, Command Sgt. Maj. Dennis Krecklow. They were visiting the UNO campus and requested the meeting to honor the 27-year-old Harvey for her service and to commend her leadership as a student-athlete while serving her country in the National Guard.  

• Powell's half-court buzzer-beater to close out the third quarter against Bellevue was featured on the ESPN SportsCenter Top Ten plays at number three after the win. 

• Both Cave and fifth-year Katie Keitges crossed career milestones this season from behind the arc. In addition to her climb in career points, Grace has 123 career three-pointers, ranking 5th in the Mavs DI Era. With 118 career 3-pointers, Katie is sixth.

• With 119 career games played, Keitges ranks 7th all-time for Omaha, and trails only Pilakouta (126 games, 2018-2023) and Mikaela Shaw (117, 2013-2017) in the DI Era. 

• The University of Nebraska (NU) System mourns the passing of Howard L. Hawks, whose leadership and generosity has created a lasting legacy on the university system, the state of Nebraska and well beyond. Regent Emeritus Hawks, alongside his wife Rhonda, dedicated decades of leadership, philanthropy and service to advancing higher education, athletics and community well-being across Nebraska. To honor Hawks, Mavericks women's basketball uniforms feature a patch carrying his initials, HH.

SENIOR DAY/PINK OUT GAME
• This year's Senior Day celebration, originally scheduled for Thursday, February 20, has been rescheduled to Saturday, February 15 versus Denver and coincides with the school's Pink Out efforts to raise awareness of cancer and support for research and care in the battle against the disease. Fans should plan on arriving at Baxter Arena ahead of schedule, with Senior Day festivities planned prior to tip-off.

ORAL ROBERTS UNIVERSITY 
• This is the 22nd meeting between the schools, with the Golden Eagles winning 18 of 21, including eight straight.
• In their most recent meeting, ORU downed the Mavericks 95-57 January 29 in Tulsa. Alana Powell scored a career-high 17 points for Omaha. Jalei Oglesby scored 26 points and Taleyah Jones 24 for Oral Roberts.

THE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER (8-16, 1-10, idle mid-week)
LISTEN/WATCH/FOLLOW
Omaha games can be heard on the Omaha Sports Network from Learfield via The Varsity Network app/website and over the air on 1180 AM The Zone 2. All remaining Mavericks regular season games will be televised on the Summit League Network. Brent Weber handles the play-by-play for the Mavericks. The FNBO Pregame Show begins 15:00 prior to tip-off.

Connect with Omaha women's basketball on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram, @OmahaWBB.

Links are available on the OMavs.com schedule page. Tickets are available for all Mavericks home games at OMavs.com/tix.