Kearney, Neb. – The Nebraska-Kearney men's basketball team finishes up the 2019-20 regular season with games at Newman and Central Oklahoma this weekend.

The Lopers (15-11, 9-8) are currently in seventh place in the MIAA standings and have already secured a spot in next week's 10-team league tourney in Kansas City. The bracket will be released once all games have been completed on Saturday.

UNK just beat UCO (9-17, 6-11) and NU (9-17, 3-14) a couple of weeks ago in the Health & Sports Center. The Bronchos still have a shot at the MIAA Tourney but the Jets have been eliminated.

Newman is coming off a 71-61 home win over Emporia State last Thursday night. Now 7-6 in Wichita, the effort stopped a six-game skid. NU is led by Division I transfers Marshawn Blackmon (17.2 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.3 steals per game) and Juwan Davenport (11.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists per game).

Blackmon, previously at Eastern Illinois, is the MIAA's fifth leading scorer thanks to 49% field goal shooting. He had a double double (21 pts., 10 rebs.) in an 85-72 loss at UNK on February 8th. Starting his career at Coppin State in Baltimore, Davenport had 18 & 7 against the Lopers and has sunk a team-best 32 threes.
 
UCO got back into the thick of the MIAA Tournament race thanks to home wins over Newman and Emporia State last week. Those wins stopped an eight-game skid. Now 6-5 at home they host Fort Hays State Thursday night in a key league game.
 
A long and athletic roster features Seattle transfer Dashawn McDowell (11.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, & 1.1 assists per game) and sophomore wing Camryn Givens (10.9 points & 5.8 rebounds per game) This pair combined for 17 points and 11 rebounds in a 66-49 loss at UNK on February 6. The 49 points was a season-low for UCO who leads the all-time series with the Lopers 13-5.
 
Looking for its fifth and sixth road victories of the winter, UNK comes in looking to stop a two-game losing streak. The team continues to lead the MIAA in assists per game (15.7), ranks second in assist-to-turnover ratio (+2.5) and is third in steals (7.1).
 
Of late Utah junior guard Jake Walker has had the hottest hand for the Lopers. He's averaging 18.4 points in his last five games, going for 25 points in wins over NU and Central Missouri. Walker is about to become just the seventh UNK player to sunk 70 threes in a single season. His current total of 68 already ranks him ninth on the single season list.
 
Also behind the arc, Iowa senior Kyle Juhl is ninth on the career threes list (166). He'll soon Ty Danielson as the only Lopers in the MIAA era (2013-present) to reach 170 made treys.  Finally Bellevue senior AJ Jackson continues to lead the MIAA in field goal percentage (.614), a figure that is chose to the school record of .624 (for attempts between 175-299).  That was set by Nick Svehla during his freshman season of 1999-00.