Kearney, Neb. – The Nebraska-Kearney men's basketball team ended a three-game losing streak to the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, and earned the eighth seed in the RMAC Shootout, with a 82-79, victory Saturday night in Colorado.

Riding a four-game win streak, the Lopers improve to 12-13 (10-11 RMAC), while UCCS drops to 8-16 (6-14 RMAC). Earlier this year in Kearney, the Mountain Lions  won 85-68. UNK now leads the all-time series 15-6.

UCCS used a 16-7 run that covered the first five minutes of the game to quickly open up a nine point lead.  During this stretch, starter Luke Hristou scored four of his seven points.

Kearney answered by going on 12-2 run that made it a 19-18 game with 12:31 left in the half. Junior forward Chris Deans (Hemingford) came off the bench to score eight of his 11 points during this first Loper run.

Springs regained the lead, 30-24, by going on another large scoring run that covered five minutes. Starter Ben Feilmeier was the leading scorer for the Lions in this period thanks to two made threes.

The Mountain Lions extended the lead to nine, 37-28, but the Lopers cut the lead down to five points three times over the final seven minutes and trailed by a 44-37 score at the break. 

UNK used a 15-2 spurt to regain the lead, 52-46, to start the second twenty minutes. True freshman Tim Billingsley (Parker, Colo.) scored seven of his nine points during this time, three coming on his only triple of the night.

The blue and gold kept the lead between two and five points over the next eight minutes and still was ahead 68-65 with 4:45 left in the game.

A Damar Hill jumper gave Springs the lead again, 69-68, and another Hill bucket made it 73-70 Lions with 2:29 to go. Seven straight points from sophomore guard Akeem Morissaint (Delray Beach, Fla.) not only erased the deficit but gave UNK the lead for good.

Morissaint also sank a free throw with five seconds to go to score the game's final point; a steal by junior Max Froehlich (Pierce) prevented UCCS from getting off a potential three pointer.

Both UCCS and UNK scored 14 points over the final four minutes. UNK got half its points at the free throw line, thanks to a 7 of 8 effort, with Springs sinking six freebies.

The Mountain Lions were led by starting forward Brent Jones, who scored a game-high 21 points, pulled down a team-best eight rebounds and added three blocks, two assists and two steals.

Feilmeier added 17 points by going 5-6 from the line and 4 of 11 from beyond the arc while Hill scored 12 points and dished out six assists.

Using a balanced attack, the Lopers were led by true freshman post Mike Dentlinger (Omaha) with 15 points and six rebounds. Deans went 3 of 4 from the three point line to finish with 11 while sophomore post Drew Sankey (Lincoln East) had 10 points and six rebounds. Finally, senior post Michael McLeod (Brownlee) came off the bench to go 3 of 3 from the field and score eight points.

UNK finished the night with a 40-32 edge on the glass and just eight turnovers. UCCS did sink 11 of 28 (39.3 pct.) of its three pointers.

Nebraska Kearney finishes the regular season next Saturday night versus Chadron State.