Junior forward Marlon Walker scored all four of his points during the final 00:47 as Concordia university (10-2) defeated Nebraska Omaha (8-7) 62-57 on Thursday evening at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul, Minn. CU has now won five straight and holds a 6-1 record in regional competition and a 4-1 mark against the North Central Conference. Junior guard Kyle Marxhausen led the Golden Bears with a game-high 23 points and 10 rebounds to pick up his first double-double of the season.

Walker was scoreless in his first 15 minutes of action, but he grabbed an offensive rebound and powered in a layup with :47 to play to give the Golden Bears a 58-57 lead. UNO's Calvin Kapels missed a layup on the other end with CU senior forward Kenneth Pointer pulling down the rebound. Pointer then hit a wide-open Walker under the hoop, and Walker converted his second-straight layup to put the Bears on top by three, 60-57 with :20 to play.

A pair of free throws by Pointer put CU on top by five with :07, as the Mavericks didn't score in the final 2:32 due to an aggressive Golden Bear defensive attack.

In a tight, defensive battle between the regional rivals, there were 10 ties and nine lead changes. Concordia never led in the first half as UNO jumped out to an 18-8 lead, the largest margin of the game for either team. But Concordia rallied late in the second half, as they outscored the Mavericks 8-2 in the last 2:26 to pull within one point, 30-29, at halftime. Four free throws from Marxhausen during the run helped to bring the Golden Bears back into the game.

Concordia finally took their first lead of the game when Marxhausen made a layup at the 16:58 mark in the second half, giving CU a 35-34 lead. Pointer extended the lead to three points, 37-34, with a pair of free throws nearly two minutes later. But UNO rallied to tie the score at 37, and from there neither team led by more than three points until Pointer's free throws with seven seconds provided the final score of 62-57.

The three-headed monster led the Golden Bears once again, as the trio of Marxhausen, Pointer, and senior forward Ty Thomas accounted for 52 of CU's 62 points. In addition to his double-double, Marxhausen also added three steals and an assist. He shot 7-16 from the field and was 9-12 at the stripe in a team-high 35 minutes.

Pointer finished with 15 points, scoring 11 of them in the second half. He shot 3-11 from the field but converted 9-11 from the line. He also had a pair of rebounds and assists and a steal in 30 minutes.

Thomas scored 14 points, 12 of them coming in the first half, on 5-14 shooting and 4-5 at the line. Thomas pulled down seven rebounds and had a pair of blocks, a steal, and an assist in 32 minutes.

Walker had just four points in the game, but he provided key minutes off the bench, grabbing four rebounds in 16 minutes of action. Senior center Aaron Ackerson had three blocks and grabbed four rebounds, while junior point guard Joey Peel dished out a team-high three assists and had a steal and two points.

Concordia's defense held UNO to just 27 second half points on 29.0% (9-31) shooting. The Golden Bears upped their poor first half shooting (32.1%, 9-28) to 37.9% in the second half, as they hit 11-29 from the field. For the game, the Mavs outshot the Bears 36.2% (21-58) to 35.1% (20-57). Neither team could find their long-range stroke, as the Mavericks hit just 15.4% (2-13) from behind the arc. Concordia was 0-7.

Concordia's big advantage was at the foul line, as they outscored the Mavericks 22-13. They got to the line 13 more times as well (30-17). They also edged the Mavericks 18-8 in fastbreak scoring and forced 16 UNO turnovers to just 12 for CU.

The Golden Bears return to action in 2006, when they play host to Bemidji State and Minnesota Crookston in the NSIC's opening weekend on Jan. 6-7 at 8 p.m. at the Gangelhoff Center.