The finish wasn’t the conclusion many Mavericks and fans envisioned when CMU held a strong lead late in the second half.
Colorado Mesa University fell by a final score of 78-75 against Regis University when Jarrett Brodbeck, Regis’s leading scorer, pulled up from deep three-point range with two seconds remaining on the game clock and nailed a game-winning buzzer beater, silencing Brownson Arena and electrifying the Ranger bench.
“It was a tournament type game,” Connor Nichols said. “They’re a really talented team. Brodbeck hit a hell of a game winner. I missed mine, he hit his. It’s how it goes. That’s how the cookie crumbles. We’ll be better.”
The sequence was one you can’t predict. Brodbeck hit a clutch shot in a game where the Mavericks had several moments of great team play.
After Christian Little tied the game at 75-75 with a free throw, the junior missed the second one-on-one free throw. Roberto Vercellino pulled down the miss for the Rangers but missed the layup. Damon Dubots grabbed Vercellino’s miss and point guard Brandon Hoffer took it to the Maverick’s side with thirty seconds remaining.
A low baseline screen gave Nichols some space at the top of the key, but the senior missed his attempt with five seconds remaining. Little grabbed the miss and pushed the ball down the court, where Brodbeck was racing to get a wide open look.
“[Connor] got a good look,” Head Coach Mike DeGeorge said. “He’s going to make that most of the time. I feel good about the shot we got… it’s just one of those plays that happens in a basketball game.”
Nichols was feeling his shot from midrange in the first-half. The senior scored 12 of his 19 in the first 20 minutes on 5-10 shooting. A second-half adjustment from the Ranges made life tougher for the Arizona native, but other Mavericks stepped up to sustain their lead.
Mike Ritter | The Criterion“We competed really hard and we played at a really high level,” DeGeorge said. “But we had lulls in that. We started out the second half and our energy wasn’t very good. We had to take a timeout to get them dialed in. you can’t give these teams that have this championship pedigree this second, third, fourth chance. It’s going to come up and bite you.”
CMU did their part in containing Brodbeck, who came into the contest averaging a team-leading 18.4 points per game. Brodbeck scored 13 points in this one with just one field goal in the second half after shooting 3-10 before the break.
The Rangers and Mavericks came out trading buckets with multiple scorers from each side, even though Regis tried to throw different looks CMU’s way.
“We got off to a little bit of a slow start because of the matchups, and we really needed [Michael Skinner] to guard Christian Little,” DeGeorge said. “Once we got in the flow of the game we pretty much sustained that the rest of the game so they were on the same cycle in terms of subbing. Once we were able to get into that flow of that group and then use those other guys to counter what their matchups were that kind of got us going in that first half.”
The Mavericks regained the lead after a 15-0 run. Sam Walters nailed a three just off the right side of the key, and Nichols finished an acrobatic layup on the fastbreak to tie it 24-24. Sam Walters scored seven of the 15 in a run that saw CMU take a 34-24 advantage.
CMU finished the half on a 21-7 run and a 41-30 halftime lead.
Regis showed some grit, clawing their way back into the Maverick lead to start the second half. The Mavericks, however, went on another sizeable run, this time outscoring the Rangers 9-0 through a quick two minutes to extend their lead to 53-41.
A number of Mavericks helped on both sides of the court. Skinner scored six points, grabbed six rebounds and had two blocks. Tommy Nuno had four steals, eight points and five assists with Damon Dubots adding 15 points and six rebounds.
Despite the strong individual performances and the team shooting 50.4% for the game, it was a contest that saw Regis show fight throughout the second half. Ryan Beisty scored 15 of his 17 in the latter half and shot 3-5 from deep. That helped Regis shoot 58.4% and outscore the Mavericks 47-35 in the last twenty minutes.
CMU was up 75-69 with 1:34 remaining, but the 9-0 run from Regis and their hot shooting gave them their 14th victory on the season while dropping the Mavericks to 13-7 and 8-6 in RMAC play.
“I think it’s just continuing the grind of trying to put 40 minutes together,” Nichols said. “Obviously it sucked tonight because we were about 35 minutes, but that’s what it takes to be a championship team. That’s what coach keeps preaching and that’s what we’re gonna keep striving for.”
