Box Score: UNO 79, Doane 68

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None of the University of Nebraska at Omaha men's basketball players is tired — or tired of winning after Sunday's 79-68 victory against Doane gave the Mavericks their third win in five days.

The 10-15 Mavs shot 50 percent for much of the game while steadily pulling away in front of 179 at Sapp Fieldhouse. The game was rescheduled from Saturday, when it was postponed by the snowstorm.

"We're doing something no one else is doing with no league and our games are all over the place," UNO coach Derrin Hansen said. "We still have 23 or 24 days where we can still grow as a team. We still have that in us."

For the first five minutes, the Tigers (10-15) had no trouble keeping up with the Mavs. A 3-pointer by Ty Headley — one of six Tiger freshman from Lincoln Southwest — made it 15-15 with 14:49 remaining in the first half.

Then the course of the game changed in the next 2:35. UNO outscored Doane 12-0 for a 27-15 lead. Doane briefly got back within seven, but a 7-2 run to end the half gave the Mavs a 42-29 advantage.

Mitch Albers led UNO in the first half. The senior guard from Papillion-La Vista made his first five shots and finished the first 20 minutes going 7 of 9 for 15 points.

"A lot of the credit for that goes to my teammates," Albers said. "They set some screens, made some nice passes, and I was just fortunate enough to knock them down."

The Mavs continued to build that lead early in the second half. Their largest advantage was 23 points, 60-37, with 14:35 left.

Albers and Caleb Steffensmeier led the charge during that run with five points apiece. The Mavs' starters combined for 62 of their 79 points, with Alex Welhouse (12) and John Karhoff (11) joining Albers in double figures.

The lead didn't dip below 14 points until just less than five minutes left in the game. Doane got within nine, 75-66, with 58 seconds to play on a layup by Joshua Riser, but a free throw by CJ Carter and a 3 by Mitchell Farr ended any hope of a Tigers rally.

Headley finished with a game-high 23 points, while Bryan Meyer (17) and Riser (10) finished in double figures.

Albers finished with a team-high 22 points for the Mavs, putting him 90 points behind Dean Thompson for the title of UNO's all-time leading scorer. Albers has 1,726 points with four games remaining, but getting that record is not his primary focus.

"Our goal is to get Division I wins and we have one of those right now," Albers said. "I want to get one more, if not three or four. That's all that is on my mind."

Contact the writer:

402-618-4113, alexsdad@mail.com

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