With possession of the ball in a tie game Saturday, who were the Lincoln Blue Tigers going to go to for their last shot?
Option A: Amariontez Ivory, who already had a game-high 33 points and was 5-of-8 from the 3-point range.
Option B: Terrance Smith, who was 11-of-16 from the field and scored 18 of his 23 points in the second half.
The correct answer was C, none of the above.
Maurice Mason, Lincoln's senior point guard, had just three points in the first 39 minutes, but he held the ball for the last shot. Going to his right off a screen set by Marquise Williams, Mason knocked down a 3-pointer from the right wing with :01.1 left to give the Blue Tigers an 82-79 win against Nebraska-Kearney at Jason Gym.
"The last play was for (Terrance) with the big man, because T was hot," Mason said. "Tez was also hot, so I was really looking for them.
"When I came off the screen, I didn't see anybody (open), so I just shot it. That was like a practice shot right there for me."
The win marks the second three-game win streak for the Blue Tigers this season and puts them above the .500 mark for the first time since Dec. 7, when they were 5-4 at the start of conference play.
"What a win for us," Lincoln coach John Moseley said. "What a homestand this weekend against two good teams. I told people all season I thought this team would be better in February than they were in November."
Nebraska-Kearney had a chance to hold for the last shot with :25.1 left and trailing 79-77.
Following a timeout, the Lopers pushed the ball down the court quickly. Trey Lansman, a 6-foot-7 forward, took the ball from the left wing and drove to the basket for a dunk to tie the game with :18.3 to play.
"I thought they would use a little bit of time, but they took a layup, so you have to go with it in that situation," Moseley said.
Rather than call a timeout to set up a final play, Lincoln returned the favor and brought the ball down the court after Lansman's dunk.
"Never did a thought cross my mind about calling a timeout in that situation," Moseley said. "Maurice is a senior and I trusted him."
After Mason hit his 3, Nebraska-Kearney threw a pass down the court to try and tie the game. The pass was intercepted by John Burton a few steps beyond half-court and he launched the ball the opposite direction as time expired.
Lincoln players met Mason at half-court and lifted him in the air as they celebrated their second straight Saturday with a last-second win.
"We needed this win," Mason said. "That was a great shot for us."
Mason played all 40 minutes, adding a team-high six assists to go with four rebounds. He even pleaded with officials he committed a foul rather than Smith, which prevented Smith from picking up his fourth foul with 6:29 to play.
"Maurice is a coach on the floor," Moseley said. "He has a good feel for what I'm thinking, and he has a great feel as a player. His basketball IQ is tremendous and he has a good pulse for what's going on."
Lincoln led for most of the game, scoring the first seven points. The Blue Tigers took their biggest lead of the game when Burton made 2-of-3 free throws with 12:12 left in the first half to make the score 17-7.
"We were able to jump out early, but they were able to make a run," Moseley said of Nebraska-Kearney, which responded with a 15-2 run to take a 22-19 lead with 8:33 left in the first half. "I knew they would. I never expected it would continue like that."
Lincoln responded with the next eight points, getting back-to-back 3-pointers by Ivory and Paris Parham to go ahead 27-22.
"Every time we would extend (the lead), they would make a run," Moseley said. "We would extend it, and they'd make another run."
The Blue Tigers led 42-38 at halftime and did not trail again until the 9:51 mark of the second half, when West Baker Margrath made a pair of free throws to give the Lopers a 63-61 lead.
The free-throw line would be a factor in the second half. On the Lopers' next trip to the line, Baker Magrath missed both attempts, which allowed Lincoln to maintain a 68-67 lead with 6:29 to play.
Nebraska-Kearney finished 17-of-24 at the stripe, while Lincoln went 15-of-17, making seven straight to end the game.
"We had a great performance from the line," said Moseley, whose team has shot 86 percent (31-of-36) from the free-throw line the past two games. "Down the stretch, we hit the key ones."
The Lopers finished the game with four dunks, but Lincoln answered with an alley-oop from Mason to Smith for the Blue Tigers' only dunk with 5:26 to play, giving them a 71-67 lead.
Ty Danielson hit a 3 to tie the game at 77 with :47 left. Ivory made both ends of a 1-and-1 to give Lincoln a 2-point lead with :25.1 to play.
Danielson was one of five players for Nebraska-Kearney (9-11, 5-6 MIAA) to score in double figures, finishing with a team-high 19 points. Lansman added 17 points and a game-high nine rebounds.
Lincoln (11-10, 5-7 MIAA) plays Thursday at defending national champion Northwest Missouri, but Moseley emphasized the team's current three-game win streak could be crucial come MIAA Tournament time.
"It's a three-game stretch where you only play a team one time, so it's going to be really big when it comes to tiebreakers to make sure we have that 1-0 advantage over these guys," he said. "Now the rest of the way, we either play a team twice or finish up the back end of a home-and-home."