Freshman guard Taylor Euler attacks the Maverick defense early in the first half Saturday night in Kansas City. The Hornets lost the UNO 67-91.

Coming off a strong upset game against Ft. Hays State, the Emporia State men’s basketball team couldn’t keep the momentum going as they fell to Nebraska-Omaha Saturday night, 67-91.

Emporia State Coach David Moe attributed a lackluster defense to the blowout victory for UNO.

“We played defense late,” Moe said. “We were in foul trouble because we didn’t get back in transition so we had to foul. We didn’t box out so we had to foul. Everything we did defensively was late, and everything we did offensively was hurried.”

Senior guard Lamar Wilbern hit a three-pointer from the left corner to give the Hornets their first points of the contest. However, the Mavericks went on a 7-0 run to give them a 7-3 advantage with just under 18 minutes to play.

The first timeout on the floor stopped the action with ESU trailing UNO 7-9. With Nebraska-Omaha leading, senior guard Jeremiah Box went down hard with an injury – the injury timeout lasted several minutes, giving both teams a breather with 14:16 left in the half.

A timeout on the floor stopped play at the 11:45 mark with the Mavericks leading 26-19 – at that time Emporia State had 10 fouls to UNO’s four.

Senior guard Lamar Wilbern fights for a lay up Saturday night in Kansas City.

Another media timeout saw Nebraska-Omaha up by double-digits on the Hornets, 31-21, with 7:54 to play in the opening period.

Thanks to a traditional three-point play from junior guard Matt Boswell, the Hornets found themselves only down by six at 36-30 with just over five minutes remaining in the half. The Mavericks, however, would extend the lead to 13 by going on a 9-2 run, putting the score at 45-32 with just over three minutes to play in the first half.

UNO led by as much as 14 until four consecutive Hornets points forced the Mavericks to call timeout with ESU trailing 37-47.

Emporia State went into the locker room trailing Nebraska-Omaha 40-49.

After a slow start, the Hornets finally scored from a dunk by junior forward Adam Holthaus.

A timeout on the floor gave a break in the action with Emporia State still trailing 46-58 with 15:17 remaining in the contest. The Mavericks extended their lead to 13 at 64-51 with 11:29 left before a media timeout stopped play.

ESU went down by 19 with just over 10 minutes to play in the game, 51-70. Emporia State called timeout with 8:39 left to play with the score at 75-55 in favor of UNO.

The final media timeout of the game came at the 3:24 mark with the Hornets behind Nebraska-Omaha 66-86.

Junior guard Matt Boswell drives the lane Saturday night in Kansas City.

The large deficit could not be overcome as the Hornets eventually lost to the game, 67-91.

Boswell thought that it was the team’s lack of defensive effectiveness that led to the collapse.

“I don’t think we came out defensively the way we did the other game (vs. FHSU),” Boswell said. “I looked up and I think we had given up 20 (points) within the first five minutes. On a team like that that gets out and runs, we needed to slow it down a little bit…effort wise I thought we were there, but maybe mentally on defense we had a lot of mistakes that hurt us.”

Wilbern credited the Mavericks’ playmaking abilities as to how the score got to where it did.

“They made plays,” Wilbern said. “They just wore us down, wore us out. They continued to make plays. We continued to make mistakes. You get a lead when that happens.”

Boswell scored 17 points to lead the Hornets in scoring, while also pulling down eight rebounds, six of them being on the offensive end. Wilbern chipped in 13 assists and four assists in his last game as a Hornet.

The Hornets ended the season with a record of 14-15.

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