Senior guard kyle marxhausen buried the biggest shot of the year for the golden bears in a new year's eve victory on the road. His three-pointer as time expired propelled concordia university (9-2) to a 79-76 victory over the university of nebraska-omaha (9-5). Marxhausen finished with 18 points while senior center drew shepp led all scorers with a career-high 26 points for concordia.

in a tight game with ten ties and seven lead changes, it was marxhausen's clutch play in the closing seconds that gave concordia the edge. After shepp's tip-in with 1:33 to play in the game that put cu up 74-72, the two teams held each other scoreless over the next 1:18 until uno's michael jenkins converted the game-tying layup with 15 seconds remaining, knotting the score at 74.

marxhausen answered the call for the golden bears, putting in a running layup with nine seconds to play, giving the lead back to concordia. He would miss the free throw attempt at a three point play and a costly concordia foul put the mavericks on the line as jenkins converted the free throws to force another tie at 76 with just three seconds to play.

that set up marxhausen's game-winner as the clock ran out on the mavericks.

concordia was hot early, jumping out to a quick 7-0 lead capped by a three-pointer by senior point guard joey peel who finished with eight points and three assists. The bears maintained control after a uno run by extending the score back to a six point lead, 18-12 with just under 14 minutes in the first half.

the mavericks responded with the next nine points to take their first lead, 19-18. After some jostling back and forth, uno took control of the half, extending their lead up to nine points, which was the deficit at the half, 44-35.

the mavs started hot in the second half, extending the lead to 11, 46-35 -- the largest lead of the game for either team.

but concordia put together a strong second half run as they have done often throughout the early part of the season, storming to score the next 13 points over the next 2:18 to reclaim the lead 50-48 with 15:56 to play in the game. It was their first lead since the 9:47 mark in the first half, when they held a 22-21 edge.

the mavs and bears traded blows over the next few minutes until concordia used an 8-0 run to go ahead 61-54 with 11:26 to play. Uno countered with the next six points, and in the final seven-plus minutes there were seven ties but uno led only once down the stretch as concordia was able to close out nebraska-omaha on their home court.

shepp's 26 points came on 11-20 shooting and he grabbed eight rebounds, five offensive. He dominated the second half with 18 points for the bears. Marxhausen, who scored concordia's last five points, finished the game 7-14 from the field and added six rebounds.

no one else hit double-figures in scoring for the bears, who had eight of ten players score in the game, all eight recorded at least four points with five players scoring at least seven in a team-effort.

concordia finished 47.0% (31-66) from the field despite being outshot by uno, who converted 50.9% (28-55) from the floor. The bears dominated the glass, holding a 39-32 edge in rebounding and a 16-5 lead on the offensive end. The golden bears used their offensive rebounding to hold a 15-9 margin in second chance points and a 42-32 lead in the paint.

timir patel led the mavericks with 17 points and nine rebounds off the bench while michael jenkins added 13 and zac robinson contributed 11.

the golden bears return home next weekend when they take on the university of mary (n.d.) and northern state as they resume their northern sun schedule with a perfect 3-0 league record. Both tip-offs are slated for 8 p.m. Starts at the gangelhoff center.