SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The seventh-seeded University of Denver men's basketball team made key plays late to get past sixth-seeded Omaha 66-63 on Monday night in the second semifinal at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.

Denver will play South Dakota State in the Summit League Championship game on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. MT on CBS Sports Network.

Tommy Bruner scored 23 points to lead the Pioneers (17-16). DeAndre Craig helped out with 15 points, five assists and two steals and Isaiah Carr chipped in with nine points, 10 rebounds and two blocks coming off the bench.

The Denver offense made hay from beyond the arc, knocking down 10 threes on 30 attempts. Bruner hit five treys for the Pioneers in the contest.

The Denver defense held Omaha shooters to only 38.5 percent from the field, including 25 percent from three-point range. The Mavericks did not get many second opportunities on the offensive end, as they grabbed only eight offensive rebounds and scored three second chance points while Denver pulled down 26 defensive rebounds.

NOTES:

• Denver advances to its first Summit League Championship game since joining the league in 2013-14.
• The Pioneers qualified for a conference championship game for the first time since 2004-05.
• First seven seed to make the Summit League Final since 2005.
• Denver finished with just eight turnovers, its 16^th game this season with single-digit turnovers.
• Denver improved to 3-1 this season when scoring in the 60s.
• In Summit League Tournament play, Denver improved to: 5-8 overall, 3-7 as the underdog and 1-3 in the semifinal.
• In conference tournament action in the modern DI era (1999-present), Denver improved to 14-21, 7-15 as the underdog and 2-7 in semifinals.
• Monday night was Denver's first game with double-digit threes since February 10 against St. Thomas.

Tommy Bruner finished with 23 points and 3 rebounds.

• Bruner finished in double figures for the 32^nd time this season and the 104^th time of his career.
• Bruner finished with 20+ points for the 22^nd time this season and the 30^th time in his career.
• Bruner had nine of his 23 after the first three Denver possessions of the game.
• Bruner's 23 points is Denver's fourth-best performance in a Summit League Tournament game in program history.
• Bruner's five three-point field goals is the most by a Pioneer in a Summit League Tournament game.
• Bruner now has 799 points on the season, fifth in Summit League Men's Basketball single-season history.
• Bruner is now tied with Nate Rohnert for ninth on Denver's career scoring list with 1307 points.

DeAndre Craig finished with 15 points and 5 assists.

• Craig finished in double figures for the third-straight game and the 10^th time of his freshman season.
• Craig finished with 5+ assists for the second time this season.
• Craig's five assist ties for the fourth-most in a Summit League Tournament game in the Pios program history.

Isaiah Carr finished with 9 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks.

• Carr finished with double-digit rebounds for the second time this season.
• Carr is the sixth Pioneer to haul in double digit rebounds in a Summit League Tournament game.

Jaxon Brenchley finished with 3 steals, the third-most in a game in Denver's Summit League Tournament history.

How It Happened
Denver raced out to a 16-2 run before the first media timeout, kick-started by back-to-back-to-back deep triples from the nation's leading scorer Tommy Bruner. Touko Tainamo played a role in the next seven Denver points as the two all-league picks for the Pioneers combined for all 16 points in the run.

Omaha settled down defensively and held Denver to just 16 points the rest of the way and got cooking on the offensive end to take a 34-32 lead into the locker room at intermission.

The Mavs stretched their lead to as many as seven before a 9-0 Denver run gave the Pioneers the lead back at 46-44 at the under-12 media. Omaha got back-to-back-to-back buckets to retake a five-point lead.

Jaxon Brenchley had seven points in a second-half stretch that saw the Pioneers retake the lead at 60-58 with 4:13 to play, a lead they took into the final media timeout.

Denver made the key plays it needed to late, including a pair of free-throws on two trips to secure the three-point victory.

This article was created using technology provided by Data Skrive. 

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