ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Omaha men's basketball team led by 10 points before St. Thomas put together a decisive run in the middle of the game and went on to a 68-53 win Saturday night in the regular-season finale.

Omaha finishes the regular season 15-16. The Mavericks were one of three teams to finish tied for fourth in the Summit League with an 8-8 record.

Omaha is the fifth seed at next week's Summit League Championship and will face fourth-seeded South Dakota at 6 p.m. CT Friday in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center. Omaha will be looking to repeat as conference tournament champion for the first time in program history. Friday's quarterfinal will air on the Summit League Network and Midco Sports.

St. Thomas (23-8, 12-4), which lost 98-94 in Omaha earlier this season, finishes in second place in the Summit League behind North Dakota State.

Omaha led most of the first half, stretching the lead to 26-16 with seven minutes to go on a layup by senior Lance Waddles. But Omaha then went scoreless for nearly eight minutes as St. Thomas outscored the Mavericks 32-7 over a 12-minute span.

After going up 26-16, Omaha scored only two more points the rest of the half. It went scoreless for the final 5:35 as St. Thomas went on a 12-0 run.

The Tommies led 31-28 at the break, and the lead grew to 51-35 as St. Thomas hit five of its first six 3-point attempts in the second half. Omaha never got closer than 12 after that.

Waddles led Omaha with 14 points and eight rebounds. He had 11 of his points in the first 13 minutes.

Paul Djobet added 13 points, while Ja'Sean Glover was next with eight as the Mavericks shot 32.2 percent from the field, including 5 of 24 from 3-point range.

St. Thomas also outrebounded the Mavericks 42-34.

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