By Wayne Nelson
Herald Staff Writer
Nebraska-Omaha's hit that target Monday night, taking a 60-55 win over UND before 600 fans at Sapp Fieldhouse. The loss ended UND's winning streak at 12 games and dropped the Sioux to 1-1 in the league.
"This is a wake-up call," UND forward Marcus Travis said. "We have to take it to another level because we have a target on our back."
Nebraska-Omaha (1-1 NCC, 9-4 overall) didn't win because its shooting hit the UND target. Nebraska-Omaha's defense never let UND make a run.
"We didn't have it offensively," UND coach Rich Glas said. "The effort was there. We held them to 60 points and we outrebounded them (46-30). But the bottom line is that you have to have a better field-goal percentage than your opponent.
"They weren't great at 41 percent (shooting), but we were at 38 percent. We didn't have anyone step up and get us on a roll."
A Blaine Ristvedt basket off a drive cut Nebraska-Omaha's lead to 43-42 with 7:16 left. But a 10-2 run gave the Mavericks a 53-44 lead with 3:08 to play. That was the only major spurt of offense by either team. It turned out to be the difference.
Mike Simons, who led Nebraska-Omaha with 25 points, scored six of the 10 points on layups. Seth Nelson's layup and Bob Wettstein's steal and slam dunk accounted the rest of the spurt. All 10 points came as the result of UND breakdowns.
"Being a veteran team, we can't afford those kinds of lapses," Travis said.
Nebraska-Omaha experienced lapses a night earlier against North Dakota State. The Mavericks led the Bison much of the way but costly mistakes in the final three minutes resulted in a four-point loss.
"Our execution in the late stages of the game was good," Nebraska-Omaha coach Kevin Lehman said. "And our team defense has been consistent all season."
The Sioux, after falling behind 53-44, were able to hang around because of some poor Nebraska-Omaha free-throw shooting. In the final 2:20, Nebraska-Omaha made only 7 of 16 free throws.
A Chad Mustard offensive rebound and basket cut the Mavericks' lead to 55-52 with 1:12 remaining. But the Mavericks managed to make enough free throws to hold off the Sioux.
Mustard led the Sioux with 13 points and 14 rebounds, while Travis had 12 points and Hunter Reinke 11.
A key to UND's success has been solid three-point shooting. Against the Mavericks, UND made only 5 of 23 three-pointers.
The Mavericks, meanwhile, made 6 of 15. Two, however, were damaging. Wettstein (13 points) and Simons hit back-to-back three-pointers, giving the Mavericks a 27-20 lead with two minutes left in the first half.
"We made crucial mistakes at crucial times," Travis said.
| UND (55) | |||
| Name | FG | FT | Points |
| Mustard | 5-11 | 3-8 | 13 |
| Travis | 5-13 | 0-0 | 12 |
| Behrens | 0-2 | 1-2 | 1 |
| Munlin | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 |
| Larson | 1-6 | 2-2 | 5 |
| Jacobson | 3-8 | 0-0 | 7 |
| Ristvedt | 2-5 | 0-0 | 4 |
| Badding | 1-2 | 0-0 | 2 |
| Reinke | 5-9 | 0-0 | 11 |
| Totals | 22-58 | 6-12 | 55 |
| Nebraska-Omaha (60) | |||
| Hahn | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0 |
| Wettstein | 6-14 | 0-0 | 13 |
| Foltynski | 0-0 | 4-10 | 4 |
| Morgan | 2-6 | 0-0 | 5 |
| Simons | 9-14 | 4-6 | 25 |
| Morrow | 1-2 | 0-0 | 3 |
| Voss | 0-2 | 1-2 | 1 |
| Nelson | 1-3 | 3-4 | 5 |
| von Backstrom | 1-3 | 0-2 | 2 |
| Miller | 1-4 | 0-0 | 2 |
| Totals | 21-51 | 12-24 | 60 |