DENVER – The University of Denver men's basketball program dropped an 84-82 game to Omaha on Saturday afternoon inside Hamilton Gymnasium.
 
LEADERS:
Zane Nelson and Carson Johnson scored 19 points apiece to lead the way for the Pioneers. Jeremiah Burke and Logan Kinsey had 18 apiece.
 
Paul Djobet led Omaha with 27 and 11 rebounds.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
First Half:
Denver's offense opened the first five minutes without a field goal before Logan Kinsey's triple got Denver on the board. A minute later, Zane Nelson hit another Denver triple to start an 8-0 Denver run to cut the early Denver deficit to two. Denver's three-point shooting continued to find its form when Josh Lee canned a triple to quickly erase a 10-point hole Denver dug and evened things up at 13-13.
 
Denver's run stretched to 18-4 on the other side of the under-12 when Nelson canned his second triple and Kinsey nailed a pull-up jumper. Omaha hit two of the next three field goals in the game to stem the run and cut the Denver lead to 21-18 at the under-8.
 
Nelson and Burke hit back-to-back triples to flip the game on its head after the 11-1 Omaha start, putting Denver up by nine with 3:43 to go to force an Omaha timeout and the under-4 media timeout.
 
Omaha responded with a 5-0 run out of the timeout to close the gap to four with under three minutes to go in the opening half. Denver closed out the half well though, getting driving buckets from Burke and Nelson in the final 90 seconds to take a 35-27 advantage into the locker room.
 
Second Half:
After a rare scoreless first half for Carson Johnson, the sophomore found his shot early in the second, hitting a pull up 75 seconds in to answer an Omaha layup and keep the margin at eight. Johnson then answered an Omaha layin with his first three of the afternoon and Denver led 40-31 with 18:10 to go. Kinsey stretched the Denver run to 9-2 with four-straight points of his own to give Denver its biggest lead of the afternoon at 46-33 heading into the under-16.
 
Omaha had the answer right back with an 10-0 run of its own to cut the Denver lead to its smallest of the second half at three with 14:00 to play. Nelson hit a triple to stop the run, and Denver called a timeout. The Mavericks hit back-to-back triples out of the timeout to even things back up at 49-49 with 13:43 to play. Omaha's Grant Stubblefield then got a three-point play the old-fashioned way to give Omaha the lead back for the first time in the second half.
 
Kinsey hit back-to-back layins and then Burke hit his third triple of the afternoon to provide a quick 7-0 response and send Denver into the under-12 media with a 56-52 advantage. After a Johnson layup out of the timeout, Omaha then had an 8-0 run right back to retake the lead, taking a 62-60 advantage into the under-8 at 8:26 remaining.
 
Out of the timeout, Omaha's Paul Djobet canned a triple to give the Mavs lead a boost to five with eight minutes to go. The Mavericks continued to build on their lead to stretch it out to seven before a Johnson free-throw and a Burke triple cut the Denver deficit to three at the under-4.
 
Omaha ran its lead back out to seven with 1:24 to go on back-to-back three-point plays by Paul Djobet.

Denver cut it to as little as one and had a look to take the lead, but couldn't get it to go and Omaha held on for the road win. 
 
NOTES:
Jeremiah Burke finished with 18 points and 4 rebounds.
Burke finished in double figures for the 17^th time this season and the 19^th time in his career.  
Zane Nelson finished with 19 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists.
Nelson finished in double figures for the second-straight game, the 15^th time this season and the 41^st time in his career.
Logan Kinsey finished with 18 points.
Kinsey finished in double figures for the second-straight game, the 14^th time this season and the 65^th time in his career.
Carson Johnson finished with 19 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists.
Johnson finished in double figures for the 12^th-straight game, the 22^nd time this season and the 42^nd time in his career.
 
UP NEXT:
Denver will return to the road for a pair of games next week when the Pioneers make their North Dakota swing in Summit League action for the final time. Denver will head to NDSU on Thursday for a 6 p.m. MT tip before rounding out the trip at North Dakota on Saturday at 12 p.m. MT.
 
TICKETS:
Tickets for the 2025-26 season are on sale now, and can be purchased here.
 
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