OMAHA, Neb. - Omaha Men's Basketball placed five players in double figures and the Mavericks used a strong finish to close out an 80-71 victory over South Dakota State on Wednesday night at Baxter Arena.
Paul Djobet led Omaha's balanced attack with 16 points and 10 rebounds for his second consecutive double-double.
Tony Osburn added 15 points, while
Grant Stubblefield finished with 13 points, five assists and five steals.
Omaha also got good production from its bench as
Ja'Sean Glover scored 13 and
Kamryn Thomas had 10 points and six rebounds.
Omaha (11-12, 4-4) is .500 in Summit League play for the first time this season. While there was balance on offense, Stubblefield gave credit to the team's defense.
"We were focused on getting stops," Stubblefield said. "We've been in a lot of these close games and we've learned the way to win close games is to get stops."
Omaha got the win on a night that was a one- or two-possession game most of the way. The biggest lead of the night was seven points before Stubblefield made two free throws with 1:28 left for a 73-65 advantage. Omaha hit 9 of 10 free throws in the final 90 seconds.
"We practice free throws every single day," coach
Chris Crutchfield said. "I'm glad we were able to make them tonight."
Omaha led most of the night, including early on. Omaha scored on five consecutive possessions during an 11-2 run, which gave the Mavericks a 16-11 lead with 12:55 left in the first half.
But Omaha also went more than four minutes without a point later in the half and SDSU hurt the Mavericks on the glass in the opening half.
The Jackrabbits grabbed nine offensive rebounds and got a big first half from center Damon Wilkinson, who scored 15 of his 24 points in the first half. Wilkinson also was a thorn in Omaha's side the first time they played earlier this month when he had career highs of 24 points and 19 rebounds in an 84-69 SDSU win.
Omaha allowed just five offensive rebounds in the second half when the Mavericks played with better energy in the opening minutes of the second half.
Omaha went 6 of 8 in the first five minutes of the half to open a 44-40 lead. Six Mavericks made field goals during that burst, and Omaha never lost the lead the rest of the night.
Omaha opened the biggest lead of the night to that point after
Lance Waddles and
Tony Osburn hit back-to-back 3-pointers for a 58-51 advantage with 10:15 left.
Another long trey from the right wing for Osburn made it 68-61. The Jackrabbits didn't get closer than four after that as Omaha won for the first time this season when it trailed at halftime.
Omaha goes back on the road as it plays at Denver at 3 p.m. Saturday.
