SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Omaha men’s basketball won its first game of the 2025 Summit League Tournament 70-61 on Thursday night in Sioux Falls.
One of the keys to the game was establishing a paint presence on the offensive end, and Omaha did that early. The Mavericks scored the first five points of the game with a dunk from Summit League Player of the Year Marquel Sutton.
Sutton drew two fouls in the first 2:30 of the game, which put him at the free-throw line. Maybe it was nerves in the first postseason game of the year or something else, but he was just 1-4 at the stripe.
Sutton calmed down and finished with a double-double. He scored a game-high 28 points and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds. He finished 10-of-18 from the field and 7-of-10 from the charity stripe.
If it wasn’t Sutton getting paint touches, it was Isaac Ondakande. Ondakande and senior point guard JJ White both finished the game in double figures.
“Isaac is starting to come along late here; we are going to him in the post in the second half of the season,” Coach Chris Crutchfield said. “He wasn’t ready to do that in the second half of the season, but he’s ready now to take that load on.”
Omaha had a 20-12 advantage in the paint in the first 20 minutes. A 13-2 run from the 7:41 to the 2:42 mark of the first half gave the Mavericks some breathing room and a 40-26 lead at the break.
“In that first game of a conference tournament, you know it is going to be a tough game,” Crutchfield said. “No one blows anyone out anymore in this kind of play. We’ve got a tough group, we’ve got a resilient group, we’ve got an experienced group.”
Omaha struggled to finish possessions in the first half. In the second segment of the game (under 16 to under 12 timeout) the Roos had four offensive rebounds and finished the first half with a 9-3 offensive rebound advantage that led to an 8-5 second-chance points advantage in the first 20 minutes.
“They had nine offensive boards at halftime, and they only got eight points,” Crutchfield said. “We survived that and off those nine, two of them they got 3s off them in the first half. We talked about it at halftime. When you’ve got a team like that, they are tough, they are desperate. They came back and got five in the second half. I thought we did a better job in the second half for sure.”
Omaha ended the game with an offensive rebound advantage of 14-9 and had 17 second-chance points to the Roos’ seven.
It looked like the Mavs would run the Roos out of the gym to start the second half with a 5-0 run, but Kansas City answered with a 10-0 run of its own and the team’s best player, Jamar Brown, started to heat up. In that run he scored eight points including two contested 3-pointers to cut the Mavs’ lead to nine (45-36) with 16:01 left in the game.
“We could’ve laid down in the second half, we didn’t, we kept fighting and kept fighting, we just ran out of time … I felt like we hit a stride defensively and did some good things, but we just couldn’t stop Marquel, who was Player of the Year for a reason,” Kansas City coach Marvin Menzies said. “He was a man amongst boys today. He just was physical and strong and efficient from the field.”
It was a hectic end to the game with Kansas City fighting to keep its season alive.
In the final four minutes, Omaha tried to find the knock-out blow. It didn’t happen until Lance Waddles rose up and hit a 3-pointer with 49 seconds left, putting the Mavs up by 10 at 68-58.
“Lance hasn’t got his footing yet, but hopefully, he will have a big game here in this tournament,” Crutchfield said.
The Mavericks will play in the Summit League Semifinals Saturday at 7 p.m. against the Friday night quarterfinal winner between North Dakota State and South Dakota.
