DENVER – The University of Denver women's basketball ended the regular season with an 82-76 win over Omaha on Saturday night. With the win Denver improves to 17-12 overall and 10-6 in the Summit League, while locking up the three-seed for next weekend's league tournament.

The third-place finish is Denver's best finish in the Summit League and the best overall league finish since DU finished fourth in the Sun Belt in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons. The 17 wins for the Pioneers are the most since the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons when they won 18 games in consecutive years.

Madison Nelson tied a career-high with 28 points. She recorded her 10^th double-double of the year, adding ten rebounds and two steals.

Claire Gritt finished with 15 points, nine rebounds and four assists in 34 minutes of action.

Senior Samantha Romanowski tallied her fourth double-double of the season with 13 points and 12 rebounds. She added four assists, moving into tenth-place for assists in a DU career with 315 total dimes.

It was a quick start to the final Summit League game of the regular season for both teams but DU hit two early 3s to lead 12-8 at the media timeout. Following the break, the Pios extended their lead to seven after four points from Claire Gritt and a jumper from Sydney Mech. The squads would then trade buckets over the final two minutes of the quarter as DU led 22-15 after ten minutes of play.

Omaha, who was playing for the right to participate in the league tournament refused to lay down in the second quarter. Head coach Brittany Lange's team opened the frame with a 10-5 outburst, cutting DU's lead to just two with just under seven minutes left in the half.

Both teams settled into the game after back-and-forth action in the first 14 minutes of play. The teams exchanged blows for the final six-plus minutes, with Denver's lead bouncing between one and four points. Omaha got the final basket of the half, a mid-range jumper from Rayanna Carter which cut DU's lead to 39-37 at the end of 20 minutes.

The Mavericks continued to cause issues for the Pios in the third as they used a 7-3 run to take their first lead of the game, 44-42 with 7:56 left in the period. Denver immediately answered the run with a 3 from Loven and two free throws from Gritt to retake the lead prior to the media break.

The Pioneer-run continued after the break as Romanowski scored five-straight points to extend the lead to 52-44 with three minutes left in the quarter. Both teams would get two-buckets prior to the end of the third, as DU led 56-48 with 10 minutes to play.

Nelson kicked off the fourth quarter with back-to-back baskets, pushing Denver's lead to 10. Despite trailing by double-digits, Omaha continued to fight, getting two-straight buckets from Killian to cut DU's lead to just five with 7:48 left in the game.

Nelson made a layup to put an end to stretch, but the Mavericks scored five of the next seven points to make it 64-60 with 6:14 to play. After a nearly two minute scoreless-stretch, Mech and Grace White converted back-to-back layups with White completing a 3-point play to put Denver ahead 69-60.

With under four minutes to play, the Pioneers turned up the defensive intensity and salted the game away.

Next up: With the three-seed locked up, the Pioneers will return to the floor on Sunday, March 10, when they face sixth-seeded North Dakota in the first round of the Summit League tournament at 1:30 pm MT.

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