Mavericks Complete Massive Comeback Against St. Thomas

Thursday, February 2

St. Paul, Minn.

7 P.M.

Omaha

10-13,5-7Summit League

St. Thomas

8-14,3-9Summit League

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Omaha	8	8	29	13	58
St. Thomas (MN)	14	15	11	14	54

Photo by: Mark Kuhlmann

Mavericks Complete Massive Comeback Against St. Thomas

Feb 2, 2023 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Mavericks opened the final month of the regular season in electric fashion as they came back from a 13-point deficit at half time to win 58-54 at St. Thomas on Thursday to sweep the season series from the Tommies.

With this win, Omaha holds fast in the middle of the standings as it improves to 10-13 overall and 5-7 in the Summit League. Meanwhile, the Tommies drop to 8-14 with a 3-9 conference record as Omaha widens the gap between them in the standings.

This marks the first time since the 2017-18 season that the Mavericks have reached double-digit wins and the first time since 2016-17 that they have won at least five conference games.

Leaders For Omaha
Grace Cave led the Mavericks with 18 points tonight, shooting 5-for-7 (.714) and going 3-for-3 from behind the arc as she picks up her 12th double-digit scoring game of the season. She also paced the team with six total rebounds.

Morgann Gardner topped 10 points for the first time since November 16 vs. Weber State as she scored 12 tonight, including a perfect 4-for-4 from the stripe.

Aaliyah Stanley earned her 12th double-digit scoring game of the season with 10 points, bringing her to 276 on the season as she inches ever closer to 300. Her five assists were also a team high.

Kennedi Grant had a big day defensively as she recorded five steals, the most on the team and the most she's ever had in a conference game.

Leaders for St. Thomas
Maggie Negaard led all players today with 20 points, as well as leading St. Thomas with four steals. Jade Hill also reached double-digit points with 13, while also getting a team-high four assists.

Team Stats
The Mavericks outshot the Tommies in overall FG% at 42.6% (20-for-47) to 37.0% (20-for-54), and also led them in 3-PT FG% at 37.5% (6-for-16) to 21.1% (4-for-19).

A key difference maker down the stretch were turnovers, as Omaha had 15 steals and turned it over 17 times, while St. Thomas only had 11 steals and committed 20 turnovers. The end result was a small but crucial lead for Omaha in points on turnovers at 16 to 11.

Inside the First Quarter
After a scoreless first two and a half minutes, Stanley finally broke the stalemate with a bucket on the feed from Sam Mitchell at 7:35. After another two and a half minutes of scoreless basketball, Cave then made it 6-0 on another dime from Mitchell, before St. Thomas recorded its first points at 4:42 on a layup from Negaard. Omaha's defense was on point through the first half of the period, with Elena Pilakouta alone pulling down three defensive boards and Cave notching two steals.

The Tommies would then get two more baskets to go up 7-5, but Stanley's first three-pointer of the day gave the lead back to Omaha with just over two minutes left. However, St. Thomas would score seven unanswered points over the final two minutes to end the quarter up 14-8.

Inside the Second Quarter
The second quarter started off as another low-scoring affair for both teams, with a couple of free throws from Stanley accounting for the only points in the period until a field goal from Negaard at 6:37. Pilakouta finally got the Mavericks back on the board a few seconds later with her first basket of the day to make it 12-16.

It would be nearly four minutes until the next Mavericks points, courtesy of a Pilakouta jumper. At the same time, the Tommies scored 13 more points to take a 29-16 lead into halftime.

Inside the Third Quarter
Things started to go Omaha's way in the third as Cave and Pilakouta each had another layup and a steal early on, followed by the first buckets of the day from Gardner and Grant as they outscored the Tommies 10-5 through the first five minutes of the quarter.

16 seconds into the second half of the period, Gardner would get Omaha within six with her second layup of the day to make it 28-34. Later, with four minutes left, back-to-back three-pointers from Grant and Cave would make it 34-37, before Gardner's fourth and fifth buckets of the period gave the Mavericks their first lead since the first quarter at 38-37. Stanley would cap off Omaha's 29-point third period with one last three-pointer at 0:23 as they would enter the fourth up 45-40.

Inside the Fourth Quarter
With a new lead in hand, the Mavericks' defense stepped up to hold the Tommies to just three points in the first three minutes. Katie Keitges recorded two steals within the first two minutes to help keep St. Thomas off the board. Despite another layup from Grant and a free throw from Pilakouta, the Tommies were eventually able to cut Omaha's lead down to one point by the final media timeout at 4:33 after five more points from Negaard.

With three and a half minutes left, Cave drained a wide open three to make it 52-48 Omaha. After the Tommies again got back within one point, Pilakouta made it 54-51 by working around a couple of defenders on a clutch layup. From there, all it took was four points from the charity stripe for Cave to hold off St. Thomas and complete the comeback for Omaha.

Next Up
The Mavericks will conclude their road trip this Saturday when they head down to Macomb, Illinois to wrap up the season series with Western Illinois at 2 p.m.