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Nebraska-Omaha Coasts to Semifinal Victory
By David Boyce
Nebraska-Omaha had the kind of one-sided victory in the semifinals that should help the Mavericks some in Sunday's championship game of the MIAA Men's Basketball Tournament.
The Mavericks had no real stress beating Emporia State 91-67 Saturday evening at Municipal Auditorium.
"The biggest stat tonight was minutes," Nebraska-Omaha coach Derrin Hansen said. "The most minutes we had a guy play was 30. We didn't have anybody play 35 minutes. Hopefully, our guys will have their legs tomorrow.
"We beat a team that was on a little bit of a roll. They are hard-nosed, well-coached and can make shots. To come out and hold them to just below 33 percent shooting is a tribute to our guys on the defensive end."
Emporia State's season came to an end. The Hornets finished the year 14-15.
"I couldn't be more proud of a group than the one I had this year," Emporia State coach David Moe said. "We struggled at times. Tonight was typical of the way our whole year has been. We didn't play well, but we still fought and competed.
"I thought Omaha played great. We rushed offensively and their pace of the game sped us up offensively and got away from what we needed to be. But bottom line, losing today doesn't change the way I feel about my team. I had a great group of kids to work with all year."
Obviously, Hansen likes the way his Mavericks are playing.
No. 3 seed Nebraska-Omaha, 21-8, will face No. 8 seed Washburn at 4 p.m. Sunday in the title game.
"The teams that are still playing are playing for a reason," said Nebraska-Omaha guard Tyler Bullock, who finished with a game-high 23 points. "We got Washburn now. They are still playing for a reason."
Washburn must win if it wants to reach the South Central Regional. Nebraska-Omaha is already in regardless of what happens in the title game.
Will that make a difference?
"They are going to go out and fight like any team in any championship game," Bullock said. "They want a championship just like we do. It's not a matter of we're in and they are not. We want to win a championship and bring it back to UNO just like they want to take it back to Washburn."
An early spurt gave Nebraska-Omaha an 11-point lead midway in the first half. Another spurt midway through the second half put the Mavericks up 75-55 with 8:39 left.
It was pretty simple what the Mavericks did to build a big lead against Emporia State. They attacked the basket, especially after three-point shots failed to fall from time-to-time.
Nebraska-Omaha, though, has some good long-range shooters, and they didn't completely turn off their outside game.
When the Mavericks held a 61-51 lead, Bullock had the ball a couple of feet behind the arc. The defender dared him to shoot it. Bullock did and made it.
Bullock was on most of the evening. He finished with 23 points.
Nebraska-Omaha really showed its toughness on the boards. The Mavericks pulled down 49 rebounds compared to 32 for Emporia State.
"I think it was a pretty hard-nosed effort overall," Nebraska-Omaha forward Matt Newman said. "Like Coach said, rebounding 49-32 was a big stat. We knew we had to go in and do the little things, and I think we got that done tonight."
For the first 12 minutes of the game Emporia State appeared to be sluggish. The Hornets fell behind 21-10.
"I don't think we came out defensively the way we did the other game," Emporia State forward Matt Boswell said. "I looked up and we had given up 20 in the first five minutes."
The Hornets, though, found their legs. Shots started to drop. Emporia State closed to 36-30.
However, Nebraska-Omaha never seemed tired and simply pushed the ball and its lead back to a comfortable 47-33.
Emporia State rallied late, scoring seven of the last nine points in the half and went into halftime down 49-40.
To reach David Boyce, contributing writer for the MIAA, e-mail dboyce@themiaa.com.
