Mavericks Fall 91-79 at Oakland

Thursday, January 3

Rochester, Mich.

6:00 PM

Omaha

4-13, 1-4

Oakland

7-9, 2-1

Team	1	2	F
Omaha	42	37	79
Oakland	50	41	91

Mavericks Fall 91-79 at Oakland

Jan 3, 2013 | General, Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Omaha Athletics

Box Score (PDF/HTML)

ROCHESTER, Mich. – The Omaha men's basketball team made a season-high-tying 11 threes but was unable to come away with a win on Thursday night, falling 91-79 to Oakland at the O'rena. The Mavericks are now 4-13 (1-4 Summit League), while the Golden Grizzlies improve to 7-9 (2-1 Summit League).

Junior guard Justin Simmons paced Omaha with a game-leading 24 points, shooting 8-of-16 from the field with four 3-pointers. He added a 4-for-4 showing at the free throw line along with three rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block.

Junior center John Karhoff also finished in double figures, totaling 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting with three boards, three assists and a blocked shot. Senior forward Alex Welhouse posted nine points and a team-leading six rebounds, hitting a trio of 3-pointers to move within one shot of tying for ninth on the UNO career threes list. Junior guard Alex Phillips matched Welhouse with nine points, adding three boards, three helpers and a steal.

As a team, Omaha shot 55 percent (30-of-55) from the field and 50 percent (11-of-22) from long range. Oakland finished at a 51 percent (35-of-69) showing from the floor and a 38 percent (11-of-29) effort from beyond the arc.

All five Oakland starters finished with double-figure scoring efforts, led by Drew Valentine's double-double on 12 points and 10 rebounds with five assists and two steals. Ryan Bass added 20 points, followed by Travis Bader (19), Duke Mondy (18) and Corey Petros (16). Bader posted five 3-pointers, and Mondy narrowly missed a double-double with nine assists and six steals to his credit.

The Mavericks hung tough with Oakland in the first half, hitting eight 3-pointers as a team to tie their season-best for a half. Combined, UNO and OU made 15 first-half threes, with Simmons, Welhouse and the Golden Grizzlies' Bader knocking down three each. After trailing Oakland for the first 11 minutes, the Mavs took their first lead of the game at 29-28 on a 3-pointer from junior guard Caleb Steffensmeier at 8:25. A 10-0 run later pushed OU ahead 48-38 with less than three minutes left in the half, but Omaha kept it to less than a 10-point deficit, trailing 50-42 at halftime.

UNO cut it to a four-point margin in the opening minutes of the second half, aided by Simmons' fourth trey of the game and a dunk by Phillips. Oakland then took it out to a double-digit lead and used an 11-2 run to surge ahead to 80-62. With the help of 11 second-half points from Petros, the Golden Grizzlies went on to earn their second conference win, 91-79 over the Mavericks.

Omaha returns to action on Saturday, Jan. 5, traveling to Fort Wayne. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. (CT) at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, and the game will be broadcast live on 1180 AM. Links to live video, audio and stats will be available on OMavs.com.