Omaha Edges SIUE 65-63 Saturday

Matt Pile's two-hand dunk, with a second to play, propelled Omaha to a 65-63 win over SIUE Saturday at First Community Arena.

The win snapped a two-game winning streak for the Cougars, who dropped to 2-3. Omaha improved to 2-4.

The Mavericks got out to a 7-0 lead and pushed the lead to as many as 18 (35-17) in the first half.

"Omaha came out and really played hard," SIUE Head Coach Brian Barone said. "They were flying around and that's why we got down early."

SIUE used a 7-0 run to end the first half to trim the lead to 11 at 35-24 at halftime.

"To our guys credit, they figured some things out and cut it to 11 at half," Barone said. "It was huge (to finish on the run)."

The run continued after the break, as the SIUE scored the first nine points of the second half to trim the lead to 2. Omaha was up three when Shamar Wright tied the game with a three-pointer at 14:42. Cam Williams gave the Cougars their first lead with a tripe at 9:22 to make it 44-43.

Courtney Carter pushed SIUE's lead to 61-58 after a turnover and bucket with 1:15 left, but Omaha's Marco Smith buried a three as the shot clock was running down to even the score with 45 seconds to play. Two free throws by Smith, followed by two free throws from SIUE's Mike Adewunmi had the score tied again with 27 seconds left.

Smith found Pile down low for the final score. Pile finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

"He is a tough son of a gun," Barone said of Pile. He ducked us in. We gambled. He rode through our rotation and then finished the way you need to finish."

Smith finished with seven points and four assists.

Adewunmi paced the Cougars with his second straight double-double. He scored 13 points and added 10 rebounds.