Omaha men’s basketball sits alone in first place in the Summit League after winning 89-78 against St. Thomas Thursday night.
There was a lot of build up to the game with both teams undefeated in the league at 5-0. The Mavericks are now 6-0 and their winning streak has grown to eight straight games, matching the program’s longest streak since 2007-08.
“I told our guys it wasn’t a big game,” Coach Chris Crutchfield said after the game. “But it was a big game because it’s a conference game and it’s a home game. That is why it’s a big game. It doesn’t matter who you are playing. It’s a big game because of those two things”.
Sutton Making His Player of the Year Case
The theme this week for the Mavs was separation week, according to Marquel Sutton.
Sutton’s second-half performance at Baxter Arena may have separated him from the pack in the race for Summit League Player of the Year honors.
After only playing 7:54 in the first half due to foul trouble, Sutton scored 19 of his game-high 24 points in the second half and grabbed five of his game-high nine rebounds.
“I was ready to get back in as soon as possible,” Sutton said. “Coach thought it was smart for me to sit it out and I do too. I knew I had to be aggressive in the second half so that is what I did.”
When St. Thomas made a run to cut the 10-point Omaha lead to four with back-to-back 3s, Sutton delivered. He caught the ball mid-baseline and hit a turn-around 2 with a hand in his face to stymie the Tommies’ comeback. He added an offensive rebound and a pair of free throws, then tipped a missed free throw back to Ja’Sean Glover for a layup to slam the door shut on St. Thomas. That is what league player of the year candidates do.
Sutton is now 31st on the Mavs’ all-time scoring chart with 1,079 points, one shy of 30th. He is also tied for 21st in school history with 518 rebounds in his career.
“We knew it was going to be a big game and a big week,” Sutton said. “We call it separation week, separate us from the rest of the league by winning this game and we are going to try to get one on Saturday as well.”
Stepping UP
Glover had an impressive seven points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals off the bench in the first half. He finished plus-14 in lus/minus, tops on the team, to go with his 14 points, six rebounds, four assists, four steals and two blocked shots.
“I thought Ja’Sean held it all together for us,” Crutchfield said. “He played a lot more minutes in the first half than he’s been playing because Marquel was in foul trouble. He did an unbelievable job.”
Junior College All-America transfer Kamryn Thomas didn’t miss a shot in the game and finished with 14 points and five rebounds. Eleven of his 14 came in the first half when the team needed to find some offense.
“We knew Marquel was out, so we knew we needed to add some scoring,” Thomas said. “I came out there and was aggressive when Marquel went down to fill that void until the second half. I got it going early so I was feeling goo.”
Three D
St. Thomas is as dangerous offensively as it gets in the Summit League. The Tommies came into the game the number six team in the country in 3-point percentage overall and were No. 1 in conference play at 46%, averaging 12.4 makes per game.
The Mavs’ switching defense and the length of Omaha helped to hold the Tommies to just 31% and nine made 3s.
“You got guys like Marquel, and Kam and Lance [Waddles], guys with length that are quick and athletic, and you can switch multiple positions,” Crutchfield said. “It causes problems for a team offensively. You never get a chance to get into a flow offensively. That is something we’ve been good at and we have to continue to get better at it.”
Next up for Omaha is a trip to Tulsa to face Oral Roberts on Saturday night at 7 p.m. CT.
