Kearney, Neb. – Nebraska Kearney's true freshman Mike Dentlinger scored a career high 23 points in the win over Regis University, 63-59, Saturday night in Denver, Colo.

Nebraska Kearney improves to 5-3, 3-1 in the RMAC while Regis falls to 3-4 and 1-3 in the RMAC. Following the win, UNK leads the all-time series, 29-7.  Last year, the Lopers beat Regis, 66-59, at home then lost 63-84, 13 days later at Regis.

In the first half, neither team had a lead no larger than three points including nine ties and eight lead changes. Regis scored the first two points of the game at the 18:57 mark on a layup by Greg Lee.

Kearney would go on 11-6 scoring run over the next four and half minutes to lead 11-8. During that run, freshmen guard Tim Billingsley (Parker, Colo.) and Dentlinger (Millard North) scored nine of the points combined with sophomore post Drew Sankey (Lincoln East) adding the other two.

Over the next five minutes, both teams combined to score just 11 points which gave Regis a one point lead ,15-14, with eight minutes left until halftime.

UNK outscored the Rangers 14-11 down the stretch to lead 28-26 at the half. A.layup from Dentlinger with seven seconds left in the first half provided the lead for the Lopers.

 Kearney started the second twenty minutes by extending it lead to four, thanks to layup from Sankey. The Rangers, however, scored the next four points to tie the game for the tenth time on a three pointer by Slobodan Jovanovic and a free throw by Chris Johansen.

After the three by Jovanovic, UNK retook the lead on a free throw by junior guard Michael Vandahl (Steamboat Springs, Colo.) at the 16:58 mark. From that point on, UNK pushed the lead to at least eight points, at two different times, during the half.

The Lopers were led in points by Dentlinger with 23, going 7-11 from the field, followed by junior wing Max Froehlich (Pierce) and Sankey with seven points a piece and Vandahl providing six.

Regis was led by Johansen (11 points) and Lance Korell, who had 10 points and two steals.

The Rangers out rebounded the Lopers, 34-27, including a 13-2 advantage on the offensive end of the floor and also attempted 21 more shots (58-37) and 11 more threes (16-5) than the Lopers.

  UNK returns to the road next weekend at Colorado Mines and Colorado Christian.