Denver men’s basketball (9-5, 1-0) started conference play Saturday night on the road against the Omaha Mavericks (6-8, 0-1). After an uneven first half, the Pioneers outscored Omaha 55-37 in the final 20 minutes to win 95-80. It was Tommy Bruner’s 25 points that led the way but it was his 8 assists that triggered the win. Touko Tainamo finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Isaiah Addo-Ankrah came off the bench and scored critical buckets with 14 points. Pedro Lopez-Sanvicente finished with 9 points and 6 rebounds. The first half was a track meet as both teams exchanged leads but the Mavs owned the lead for most of the final ten minutes of the half which ended, 43-40. The Mavs shot a blistering 53.8% from the field, led by Frankie Fidler’s 19 points. Denver shot a solid 48.6% in the half and eight offensive rebounds allowed DU to hang close to Omaha. Tommy Bruner’s 16 points and Touko Tainamo’s 14 points kept Denver close. Unfortunately, three foul calls on Jaxson Brenchley put Brenchley on the bench for the final nine minutes and impacted Denver’s regular rotation.

Denver started the second half red-hot with a 16-4 run, highlighted by Isaiah Addo-Ankrah’s a pair of three-point makes. 56-47, DU. Denver was shooting 62% in the first eight minutes of the second half. Omaha’s Fidler picked up his fourth foul with 11 minutes to go as DU stretched the lead to a dozen. A host of Omaha fouls put Denver in the penalty for the rest of the half. Denver’s lead grew to 20 on a pair of threes by Addo-Ankrah and Pedro Lopez-Sanvicente with 7:49 remaining. Denver carried a 20-point lead to the five-minute mark but a press by Omaha momentarily stalled Denver’s march to victory and carved five points off the final margin.

Denver shot 62.5% in the second half to scorch the Mavs. Denver only had 9 turnovers for the game and held the Mavs to 42% shooting from the field. The game was a perfect start to conference play for Denver and snapped a 5-game losing streak at Omaha. Next up is a game against Oral Roberts on Sunday at 3:00 pm MT at Hamilton Gym.

After the game, head coach Jeff Wulbrun told radio host Tyler Maun, “We are moving the program forward. What a great second half. We need to do a better job of defending. The ball moved and we started that second half by throwing the first punch. (We went) 6-9 from three in the second half. We competed…our guys had laser focus. I like the competitive spirit of our guys.”