The Mavericks swept the Rangers in the season series and moved into second place in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference standings with a 91-79 win.
Colorado Mesa University (CMU) shot 64% from the field in the game and 43.8% from beyond the three-point arc in the game. They scored 48 points in the paint and got out in transition often as they scored 30 fast break points.
Redshirt freshman guard Mac Riniker was the Maverick’s second-leading scorer in the game with 19 points. He finished the game with six steals as he just jumped the Ranger’s passing lanes all game long. Riniker fouled out in the game with his final foul coming on an offensive foul which made Brayden Carter sick.
Carter took a charge against Riniker with 5:16 left in the game, but he stayed put on the floor for a few moments while holding his ribs and stomach before vomiting on the floor.
Once the floor was cleaned, the crowd erupted into “M-V-P” chants for the staff members, officials and players that helped.
The Mavericks swung the momentum in their favor early in the game as Riniker got his first steal of the game and finished at the rim through contact. He was sent to the free-throw line to complete the three-point play.
Redshirt freshman forward Trevor Baskin grabbed more momentum for CMU as he threw down a tomahawk dunk on a fastbreak over a Ranger defender who tried to stop Baskin at the rim. He gave CMU a 7-5 lead with 17:39 left in the first half.
Regis University (RU) withstood the Maverick’s initial run to tie the game up at 11 four minutes later.
CMU went on a mini-run to take a six-point lead, but again, RU chipped away at the lead to tie the game up at 19 with 10:41 left in the first half. Both teams went back-and-forth until the final three minutes of the half.
Redshirt freshman guard Reece Johnson buried a three-pointer to put CMU up by five points. The Mavericks closed out the first half on a nine to four-run to take a 45-35 lead into halftime.
The opening five minutes of the second half went back to the back-and-forth style, but the Rangers couldn’t get the CMU lead under 10 points. Carter did cut the lead under 10 points as he finished at the rim on a fastbreak with 14:32 left in the game.
Johnson and redshirt senior guard Georgie Dancer answered with five points of their own to put CMU up 61-48.
Both teams battled for control in the final ten minutes of the game as they traded punches to gain some momentum. Will Cranston-Lown cut CMU’s lead down to 10 points with 5:22 left in the game as he carved into the paint to finish at the rim.
The Rangers couldn’t get the lead back under 10 points until Cranston-Lown got to the free-throw line and hit both shots to cut the lead down to 66-74.
The Mavericks answered with another six-point mini-run to push their lead up to 14-points with 2:24 left in the game.
It became a battle of free throws in the final minute and a half of the game as there were eight total free-throw trips between both teams. CMU shot 69% from the free-throw line in the game, but they went nine for 10 from the charity stripe in the final minute and a half of the game to pull out the win.
There were a total of 43 fouls called in the game.
Baskin was CMU’s leading scorer on the night with a game-high 21 points and shot 10 of 15 from the field in the win. He pulled down five rebounds in the game as well before fouling out.
The Maverick’s next game is Saturday, Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m. against the Colorado School of Mines for their final regular-season home game of the season.
