The Omaha Men’s Basketball team is off to a slow start to the 2024-2025 season in non conference play. At first Omaha looked like a dangerous team after a strong showing against MACU winning 85-69 then ending the over 25 game road non conference losing streak against Stetson 79-76 and only losing to Minnesota 68-64. Omaha would travel out west to play UNLV not able to finish UNLV off losing 80-69 and lost to Southern Utah 79-73.
There were travel issues for the basketball team getting to Cleveland for the Akron Invitational with their flight to Chicago getting diverted to St Louis due to winter weather in Chicago. Once the ground stop got and ATC hold got lifted, they flew into Chicago before making a flight connection onto Cleveland where it experienced snow. The first two games in Akron saw a lack of defense by Omaha giving up 85 points to Alabama State and 92 points to Akron. Omaha was able to get it together on the finals day of the invitational by beating Lamar 65-59. After a long road stretch, Omaha finally returned home to face Abilene Christian where Omaha only scored 19 points in the first half of that game and ended up losing 71-55.
Yesterday December 4th, the University of Nebraska Omaha experienced a campus wide power outage on Dodge Campus, which is the main campus of the university prompting all classes on main campus to get cancelled as a result. Only classes on Scott Campus and remote/online classes had class due to the power outage. Baxter Arena on Center Campus was fine and had power and the game vs Montana State in the Summit/Big Sky showdown was still a go. The first half was a close affair with Omaha and Montana State battling it out. Omaha went on an 11-0 run to take a 27-20 lead after Khamani Cooper hit back to back three pointers forcing Montana State to take a timeout. After the timeout, Montana State went on a 13-0 run leaving Omaha without a field goal for over six minutes to end the first half leading Omaha 33-29.
In the second half, Montana State was able to make their three point baskets while Omaha could not hit anything at all from three and shooting like Dodge Campus without power. Omaha was only able to hit a few three throws and the two point basket mainly from the inside the second half. Nothing could fall as Omaha tried to battle back with good looking shots but not able to go in including a few three point shot attempts rattling in and out. Omaha would end up losing the game 76-65 and were 2 for 19 shooting the three pointer. Montana State on the other hand was 9 for 21 shooting the three. Marquel Sutton was the lead scorer for Omaha with 22 points, Tony Osburn with 12 points, Isaac Ondekane had 11 points, Khamani Cooper with 6 points, Lance Waddles with 4 points, JJ White 4 points, Kamryn Thomas, Joshua Streit, and Pablo Soumare each with 2 points. Omaha’s next game is at Sacramento State in the second part of the Summit League/Big Sky Challenge on Saturday December 7th at 3pm Central Time.