BROOKINGS, S.D. - The Mavericks began their final road trip of the season with a loss tonight as they fell 98-85 at South Dakota State, who remains undefeated at home at 12-0.
Still in first place in the Summit League, Omaha is now 16-11 on the year and 10-2 in conference play. As for the Jackrabbits, they improve to 17-9 with an 8-3 conference record to hold on to third place.
Leaders for Omaha
Tony Osburn and
Marquel Sutton each had 20 points tonight to lead the team. Both made seven field goals, with including three from behind the arc for Osburn. Sutton was tied with
Kamryn Thomas for the team lead in rebounds with five.
JJ White (12) and
Lance Waddles (10) were both in double figures too, with White also pacing the team with eight assists.
Team Stats
Though they shot well overall, the Mavericks were outshot in all three categories tonight, trailing in FG% at .552 (32-for-58) to .462 (30-for-65), 3-PT FG% at .500 (10-for-20) to .333 (9-for-27), and FT% at .828 (24-for-29) to .800 (16-for-20).
Omaha was also outrebounded 37 to 28, but turned the ball over less at 10 to seven.
Inside the First Half
After a slow start that saw the Mavericks held to just one point in the opening two minutes of the half, Omaha three-straight buckets from Osburn followed by the first three of the night from Thomas quickly tied the game at 11-11 at the 14-minute mark. Later, trailing just 21-20 with under nine to play, Sutton went to the line for the second time and drained both shots to give Omaha its first lead of the day with 8:46 to go.
With Omaha holding on to a 25-24 lead with under eight minutes left, the Jackrabbits completely took control of the game and proceeded to outscore the Mavericks 24-10 over the next six and a half minutes to build a 13-point lead at 48-35 and just over two minutes left. Omaha was not about to go down easy, though, as the team rallied by ending the half on a 10-0 run that saw the second three of the day from Thomas and was capped off by Osburn as he stripped the ball away at half court and took it in for the unobstructed layup to cut the deficit to three.
Inside the Second Half
The Jackrabbits immediately responded in the second half as they opened things with a 6-0 run to get their lead back to nine. Osburn would get Omaha's first bucket of the half at with a three at 17:21 to end SDSU's run, before making his third of the night at 15:42. It would take until 13:46 for another Maverick to record a point in the half when Waddles made two from the line to get the deficit back into single digits at 62-54.
SDSU soon got the lead back into double digits, however, taking a 73-58 lead into the final 10 minutes. Despite eight more points from Waddles in the last five minutes, including a pair of threes, Omaha was ultimately unable to get back into the game as they went on to drop just their second game of conference play.
Game Notes
- Sutton moves up one spot on the all-time scoring list to 19th as he now has 1210 career points.
- White ends the night at exactly 75 points away from 1000 with four regular season games to go.
Up Next
Omaha closes out the week with one of the biggest games of the season as they head up to St. Paul, Minn. to face second-place St. Thomas in a game with massive implications for the Regular Season Title.
