Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.It's been a season of goodbyes for the University of Nebraska at Kearney, though two of those goodbyes weren't expected.
The Lopers are finishing up their season without their top two scorers, Mike Dentlinger and Quinston Reggins, who recently suffered season-ending injuries. They'll play their third game without Dentlinger and fourth without Reggins in Wednesday's 7 p.m. game with UNO at Sapp Fieldhouse.
It's the final scheduled game in the series between UNK and UNO. The Mavericks are reclassifying to Division I as members of the Summit League, and UNO's new conference wants all of its men's basketball teams to play no more than one non-Division I opponent annually. UNO will play NAIA Benedictine (Kan.) next year.
UNK, which remains in Division II, will move from the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference to the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association next season.
"This is nostalgic for us," said UNK co-coach Tom Kropp, himself one of the legendary players in the UNK-UNO series. "It's hard for us to lose this game (from the schedule). But there's just no choice. It's kind of like leaving the RMAC after 18 years. You go into a place and think, 'Well, we may never play here again.'
"It's been a great rivalry with UNO."
Dentlinger, a 6-foot-6 sophomore forward from Millard North, averaged 14.9 points and 5.6 rebounds before injuring a knee ligament in practice six days after Reggins suffered a broken wrist in a game. Reggins, a senior point guard who had transferred to UNK from Division I Coppin State, averaged 11.4 points.
"If you follow any sport, you know injuries are part of the game," Kropp said. "Everybody has them. You wish it didn't happen, but you have to accept it as part of the game."
With Dentlinger and Reggins out, freshmen Ethan Brozek and Tyler Shields stepped forward last weekend with significant contributions.
Brozek, a 6-foot-7 forward averaging 7.5 points and 5.3 rebounds, had 17 points, seven rebounds and the key late defensive play in a win over Regis (Colo.), then had 23 points and 15 rebounds in a 10-point loss to nationally ranked Division II power Metro State (Colo.).
Shields, a 6-4 freshman from Kearney, had played sparingly before moving into a starting role because of Dentlinger's injury, then had eight points and nine rebounds against Regis and six points and seven rebounds against Metro State. For the season, Shields previously had 16 points and 24 rebounds.
Brozek, from Norfolk Catholic, had signed with UNO when it was still a Division II program, but was given his release over the summer.
"He was our No. 1 recruit before he signed at UNO," Kropp said. "Once he was here, he'd kind of played second fiddle to Mike Dentlinger, which is understandable. He'd had some really good games for us, but he hadn't been quite as consistent — and a lot of that was because he was deferring to Mike."
At 13-9 with four games left in the regular season, UNK is in position to end a streak of three consecutive losing seasons. Prior to that the Lopers had posted 16 consecutive winning seasons, including 12 seasons of 21 wins or more.
"We're going to have to play well to win any of the four," Kropp said. "And then we've got the RMAC tournament."
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