Over Red Mountain and through the San Louis Valley, to the Land of the Champions is where Mavericks are found. Ya like that? Meh, probably not. A little attempt to poetically summarize this past weekend for the Colorado Mesa University women’s basketball team.
Head Coach Taylor Wagner and his squad traveled down the Western Slope to capture their second-straight Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championship after downing both Fort Lewis College (FLC) and Adams State University (ASU).
“We needed to start peaking right now,” Taylor Wagner said. “We got a couple of weekends left in the season and I think it’s really positive for this team to go out on a positive note.”
The Mavericks secured their partial share of the RMAC title after a thrilling 63-60 win over the Skyhawks on Friday before crowning themselves as the sole champions after the 63-51 dub against the Grizzlies on Saturday.
They never do come easy do they? Ever since CMU won the RMAC Championship back in their 2018-19 campaign, the rest of the conference field drew their own target on the Mavericks’ backs. Westminster got the best of CMU back on Jan. 25 and then Regis had their “cheesecake” win against the Mavericks last weekend.
“I just think we looked kinda scared,” senior guard Sydni Brandon said about the loss to Regis. “It was just an off game and we’re gonna have those…it was just not us.”
Those two conference losses were enough to show Wagner’s squad has their weaknesses and, because of the thrill of downing the champs, every single RMAC team this year loved to give CMU their all.
Take Fort Lewis for example. In both games this season, CMU barely escaped with three-point victories in each matchup. Then, Adams State on Saturday played as if it was their own version of a playoff game. The Grizzlies kept the game within seven points for the entire first half before the Mavericks finally pulled away in the third quarter.
Prior to Saturday, ASU was riding a seven-game losing streak with a 3-23 overall record. As the saying goes…when you have nothing else to lose.
But it isn’t just Adams State or Fort Lewis. Teams love to beat CMU. As mentioned before, Regis was able to have their cheesecake celebration after their 77-64 win back on Feb. 15 that handed the Mavericks their first RMAC home loss since Jan. 28, 2018.
That’s just the name of the game, though. Push through adversity and make the necessary shots or bowe up on defense to win a game. Against Fort Lewis on Friday, CMU attempted 29 three pointers and made only three of them.
After Kelsey Siemons made the first two, there were 15 missed shots from beyond that arc but Siemons and whoever else kept shooting. Eventually, Kelsey made two more crucial three’s and that such a strong metaphor for how this season has gone. Keep pushing even when the plan isn’t working, but eventually, success is a by-product of the effort.
“You just gotta keep [shooting] cause at some point we’re gonna shoot the average,” Wagner said. “You can’t keep going away from it and with us, you know you gotta take the shot that’s open cause that’s what they were going to get. They just stepped up big time for us.”
The Mavericks made only four three’s again on Saturday but attempted 15 less than the night prior. Dani Turner led the team in scoring throughout the entire road trip with 35 combined points.
CMU now will play host to the RMAC Tournament that will start on March 3 but the last regular season game against Western Colorado University could be a tournament finals preview as the Mountaineers are second in the conference with a 19-6 record and a six-game winning streak under their belt.
