Kearney, Neb. – Nebraska-Kearney shot a season-high 53 percent from the field and got another big performance from senior guard Yashua Trent to hold off Southeastern Oklahoma State, 88-81, Saturday afternoon in Fort Smith, Ark.

The game was part of the Hampton Inn Thanksgiving Classic. UNK is now 3-5 while the Savage Storm, from the Great American Conference, fall to 3-4.

This marks Kearney head coach Kevin Lofton's 200th career win. In his 13th season as a head coach, he won 44 games the past three years while recording 156 over 10 seasons with then-co-head coach Tom Kropp.

The Lopers got off to a slow start, trailing 9-2 and 16-9. However, a Trent (Chicago) layup gave UNK a 35-31 lead with 3:53 left in the half. That capped a 12-4 run with the Storm turning the tables quickly, finishing the half on a 9-4 spurt.

Making 59 percent (17 of 29) of its shot after the break, UNK led for the final 11:43. Two free throws from senior forward Trey Lansman (Harlan, Ia.) erased 59-58 deficit and then senior guard Ty Danielson (York) hit his lone three of the day.

The Lopers lead grew to 77-70 with 2:36 left but the Storm made four straight shots and took advantage of a missed free throw and turnover to trim the deficit to one, 80-79, at the 1:11 mark. Danielson sunk two freebies to give UNK some breathing room and then a Lansman steal resulted into two free throws by Trent.

After scoring 25 Friday night against ninth-ranked Arkansas-Ft. Smith, Trent again went for 25 as he was 10 of 11 from the field (1 of 2 threes) and 4 of 5 at the line. The shooting performance is tied for the third highest percentage (90.9) since the 1990-91 season.

Danielson was 6 of 7 at the line to tally 11 of his 17 in the second half with Lansman having all 13 of his points in the final 20 minutes. He also had team-highs in assists (six) and rebounds (eight).

Finally for the Lopers, senior guard Lane Rohrich (Pierce) had 12 points, four boards and two steals and sophomore forward Kyle Juhl (Harlan, Ia.) came off the bench to provide eight points and three rebounds in 12 minutes.

The Savage Storm had four in double figures, led by starter Markell Henderson with 18. He also had nine rebounds (seven defensive) in 27 minutes of work.

UNK hosts Pittsburg State and Missouri Southern State next weekend to start MIAA play.