Box Score Kearney, Neb. – Four players scored in double figures and the Central Oklahoma Bronchos made 11 of its first 12 shots to beat Nebraska-Kearney, 75-68, Thursday night in Edmond.
 
UNK (17-10, 13-8) is now in a second place tie with Missouri Southern State and Fort Hays State. Northeastern State (8-17, 7-14), the Lopers opponent Saturday, took FHSU down to the wire tonight but lost, 87-84.
 
Regionally, Harding (Ark.) upset East Central, 80-67, tonight at home. In the latest Central rankings, UNK is sixth and ECU seventh.
 
Beating the Lopers for the second time this year and now 4-0 all-time vs. Kearney at home, UCO (14-13, 10-11) quickly erased a 3-0 deficit by making shot after shot.
 
Shooting 45% from the field on the season, UCO led 26-13 at the 10 minute mark after a jumper by junior guard Cornell Neal. At that point, the 'Chos were 11 of 12 from the field, including a 4 of 5 effort from the arc.
 
UNK hung around, never letting the deficit get bigger than 14 points. However, UCO cooled off only slightly, ending the night at 59% (29 of 49). That is the highest by a Loper opponent this winter.
 
Back-to-back threes from Pierce sophomore Lane Rohrich gave Kearney some hope, cutting the deficit to eight. Two free throws from York sophomore Ty Danielson followed and it was 63-57 with 4:25 left.

But, UCO responded with a quick 8-1 run, highlighted by a three from senior guard Seth Heckart. The 'Chos went 10 of 20 from behind the arc, the most threes UNK has allowed all season.
 
"You've got to tip your hat to them. They came out with confidence and hit a lot of shots early," said UNK head coach Kevin Lofton. "They cooled off a bit in the second half but we couldn't capitalize."
 
A very balanced UCO attack saw eight different players score between four and 13 points. Five of these Bronchos made at least one three, led by Heckart with four.
 
Senior forward Trai Jordan (13), Heckart (12) and Neal (12) combined for 37 points with Jordan and Heckart also pulling down a total of 15 rebounds.  UCO ended with a plus seven rebounding margin and  got 22 points from its bench.
 
"It's not like they put a sticky defense on us and we couldn't get anything. We had a lot of opportunities but they didn't go," said Lofton. "To their credit, they shot well from the three point line. Coming in, we wanted to take that away from them. But, they were able to get started early and we didn't get them off the line like we would've like to."
 
For UNK, Danielson scored 14 of his career-high 20 points after the break. He was 7 of 13 from the field (3 of 6 threes) and also supplied six rebounds, two steals and an assist.
 
Next, Rohrich scored 20, four shy of his career-high, by making 8 of 11 shots (4 of 4 threes). In 34 minutes, he also had three of UNK's 11 assists. Finally, Iowa sophomore forward Trey Lansman had 13 points, four steals and two rebounds.
 
Saturday's regular season finale in Tahlequah tips at 3:30 p.m.