• Box Score: UNO 81, Western Illinois 70
• Photo Showcase: UNO men's basketball, Jan. 24

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Western Illinois, a workmanlike team with precision-carved roles, stepped just a little bit out of character Tuesday.

The Leathernecks, who have gotten 83 percent of their 3-pointers from either Ceola Clark or Jack Houpt, got eight more from that duo Tuesday night against UNO.

But it was the other two 3s — Tommie Tyler’s eighth of the season and Obi Emegano’s first — that put the finishing touches on Western’s 81-70 victory over the Mavericks before 831 at Sapp Fieldhouse.

“I thought we made them hit shots that they might not normally hit,” UNO coach Derrin Hansen said. “And hats off to them. You can live with that as a coach.”

Hansen had more than just the 3s by Tyler and Emegano in mind on what was an upbeat night for the nomadic Mavs, playing their first home game in 35 days because of their Division I baptism-by-fire schedule.

Clark — fifth in the country in 3-point percentage — hit his fourth 3, set up Terell Parks with a lob pass for two more points, and then Tyler hit his 3 as the Leathernecks pushed a 49-47 lead to 57-47 midway through the second half.

After UNO pulled within 57-52, forward Alex Welhouse was hit with a technical foul after being called for a foul on a rebound. The called irked the Mavs.

“I know what was said,” Hansen said. “I question who was charged with saying it ... and I’ll leave it there.”

Western Illinois (11-8) took over from there, stretching the lead to 67-54 on 3s by Houpt and Emegano — who had attempted only one from long range all season.

“That’s not my role, but it was open and the shot clock was going down, so I took it,” said Emegano, a freshman who leads Western in scoring at 14.4 points per game and had 24 points and seven rebounds Tuesday.

“When Obi is doing his scoring, and Ceola is running the show, and Terell is going inside and Jack is hitting 3s — we’re a pretty good team,” Western coach Jim Molinari said.

The Leathernecks led by at least 11 until the final minute.

UNO (7-15), having lost six of its previous seven games, was sharp early.

“They really came out with huge fight and a huge sense of urgency,” Clark said.

UNO jumped out to a 4-0 lead as Mitch Albers and Welhouse hit baseline jumpers and Western had a pair of turnovers, leading to a 30-second timeout from Molinari just 91 seconds into the game.

The Mavs held an early 13-7 lead and hung close enough to tie 24-24 on Albers’ backdoor dunk on a set play out of a timeout.

“We didn’t play great defense, but give credit to Coach Hansen and his group for that,” Molinari said. “We’re a team that doesn’t lose confidence because we can’t score (like most teams), but we do lose confidence when we can’t stop the other team — and they put us in that situation.”

The 6-foot-3 Emegano hit his first two shots of the game — a pair of mid-range jumpers — during a 7-0 run that made it 31-24.

The Mavs hung in, though, and Caleb Steffensmeier drained a 3 on a rebound tipped out to the perimeter to make it 35-32 with 28 seconds left in the half.

“We’re a defensive team first,” Emegano said. “But they got going and hit a few shots — a few tough shots, too. But we stuck with it. We know that if we stick to our principles, we’ll have a good chance by the end of the game.”

Houpt converted a four-point play — getting fouled while draining a 3 — off a set play to open second half that pushed the lead to 39-32.

“I thought we really competed,” Hansen said. “I liked our effort. I liked our energy level. There were just a couple of things along the way ... some we could have couldn’t have controlled, some we could have.”

UNO shot 53.8 percent from the field in the first half and 51.9 percent overall against the Leathernecks, who led the Summit League in holding opponents to 59.8 points per game.

Welhouse had 17 points, while Albers and CJ Carter each had 14 for UNO. Center John Karhoff dished out a career-high six assists, with several nifty passes out of the post.

Western shot 65.2 percent in the first half and 58.7 percent overall.

“You’ve got to give them credit,” Albers said. “They made shots when they needed to, and we didn’t.”

• MAV NOTES: Albers' 14 points gives him 1,656 for his career, and he needs five points to pass Dennis Forrest (1973-77) for second all-time at UNO. He needs to average 23.0 points per game over his last seven games to break Dean Thompson's career mark of 1,816.

Contact the writer:

402-444-1027, rob.white@owh.com
twitter.com/RWhiteOWH

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