Kearney, Neb. – Senior guard Yashua Trent hit a three pointer from the right wing with a second left to help Nebraska-Kearney rally past Missouri Southern State, 82-79, Saturday evening at the Health & Sports Center.

UNK (5-5, 2-0) gets back to the .500 mark while the Lions fall to 2-5 (0-2).

Thanks to 11 made three pointers, Mo Southern led for nearly the entire way but by never more than nine points. The Lopers hung around thanks to a season-high 57 percent field goal shooting and then broke a 76 all tie when senior guard Lane Rohrich got a steal and dunked the ball with 2:07 remaining.

MSSU, finishing 11 of 27 from behind the arc, missed two threes and the Lopers followed with a bucket in the paint from senior forward Trey Lansman at the 34 second mark. Star guard CJ Carr missed a triple 10 seconds later but MSSU grabbed the rebound and called timeout.

After the break, starter Elyjah Clark came off a screen and hit his fifth three of the game to tie things at 79 with around 10 second left. UNK swiftly moved the ball up the court with Trent losing control of the ball on the right wing with the clocking inching to zeroes. However, the momentary loose ball helped create enough space and Trent stepped back and made his only three of the night from about 21 feet out. 

The Lions set up a play after a timeout but Bellevue sophomore AJ Jackson caught the inbounds pass near the MSSU bucket.

"Yashua stepped up a made a big shot. We'll take it at this point," said UNK head coach Kevin Lofton.

Shooting over 50 percent for a third straight game, UNK got 17 points from both Lansman (Harlan, Ia.) and Rohrich (Pierce) and 16 from Trent. Off the bench, sophomore forward Kyle Juhl (Harlan, Ia.) made 7 of 10 shots, three from downtown, to score a career-high 18. He also had three rebounds and three steals in 26 minutes.

"Lane has been with us for four years and a lot of coaches call them program players. His role diminished a bit last year but he hung in there, got better and got an opportunity to start this year due to some injuries. He's done a great job since and has had some huge games for us. When he plays with confidence, Lane is a very good player" said Lofton. "Kyle's 18 points is the most we've had off the bench all year. He hit some big shots and we he plays aggressive he shoots it at a pretty high level."

The Lopers did have a rare cold night at the line (16 of 26) but had 17 fast break points to zero for MSSU. A taller and more athletic Lions team was just plus one on the glass with UNK tallying 16 points off 11 MSSU turnovers.

Playing almost all 40 minutes, Lansman grabbed 11 rebounds (eight defensive), making this his fourth double double of the season. Trent had seven rebounds (six defensive) and six assists to go along with his point total with Rohrich at four assists, three boards and two steals in 36 minutes.

"They made shots and had seven threes at the half and that's way more than we would like to see. Some of that was because we went zone to try and stop them from abusing us inside. It worked for a few possessions but then they started hitting some shots," said Lofton.

Mo Southern saw Clark score a game-high 22 points thanks to those five threes with forward LJ Ross at 12 points and seven rebounds. Off the bench, post Enis Memic had 11 rebounds and 10 points in just 13 minutes.

UNK heads to Emporia State and Washburn next weekend.