Box Score

MARYVILLE, Mo.-Nebraska-Omaha jumped out to a 13-0 lead and held on in the second half to beat Northwest Missouri State 64-56 Thursday at Bearcat Arena. Maverick guard Mitch Albers led all scorers with 19 points.

The Bearcats (5-14, 3-12 MIAA) missed their first seven shots of the game and had three turnovers before Kyle Schlake broke the ice with a free throw near the 15-minute mark. Alex Welhouse, meanwhile, hit two 3-pointers and Albers scored seven points in helping Omaha to its largest lead of the game, 20-4.

Northwest went to its five bench players and used a 17-5 run to crawl within four, 25-21, late in the first half. Shaneel Narayan scored seven points during the run and handed out two assists. Albers countered with nine first-half points and Omaha led 34-26 at the break.

Arunas Simanavicius scored a season-high 11 points for Northwest and hit a 3 five minutes into the second half that cut the deficit to 42-40. Omaha held the Bearcats to five points during the next 10 minutes and built its lead back 12 on a layup by Tyler Bullock with 4:47 remaining.

The Mavericks (12-7, 9-6) committed nine turnovers and out-scored the Bearcats 18-8 at the free-throw line to win for the second time in as many games. Bullock, the MIAA''s second-leading scorer, finished with 13 points on 4-of-12 shooting. Elijah Allen led the Bearcats with 17 points on 7-of-17 shooting.