Defense got the Mavericks to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Championship Game.
Seven points in the second quarter and six points in the third quarter is what the number-one ranked offense in the RMAC was limited to on Friday night. The Colorado Mesa University women’s basketball team upended the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) Orediggers 59-47 in the semi’s of the RMAC Tournament by simply playing defense.
“I’m just happy for our team,” CMU Head Coach Taylor Wagner said. “They stepped up to the challenge and all the girls I think were just inspired to go out and play their hardest.”
Here are some stats for ya to take in to understand how impressive Friday was. The Orediggers came into the game averaging 69 points per game and three players averaging more than 10 ppg. Mines also had the best player in the RMAC, Denali Pinto, who scores 20 points on a regular basis and led the entire conference in points.
CMU held Mines to least amount of points they have scored all year, Pinto scored in single digits for the first time since Dec. 7 (the last time CMU played CSM) and the Oredigger offense had the second worst field-goal percentage in their entire season.
“All week we knew the scout and we knew what we wanted to do,” CMU guard Sophie Anderson said. “We really just didn’t want [Pinto] to catch the ball and keep the ball out of her hands and limit the amount of time she had with it. That was my goal. Just don’t let her have anything.”
The third quarter was the most impressive ten-minute span for Taylor Wagner’s defense. CSM made only one field goal the entire quarter and shot 7.69 percent from the field while CMU erupted for 23 points and made four three’s.
“Coming out we knew they were tired and we’ve conditioned ourselves all season for this,” Anderson said. “We just wanna be number one on the defensive area and as a team we made that decision.”
The other best performance of the night belonged to Sophie Anderson. Before Friday, the Paonia native hadn’t scored more than eight points in a game this season. Against Mines, Anderson threw up 15 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals. All in all, it was Sophie’s best game of her career.
Not to mention, Anderson eventually got put on Pinto and was a big part why the RMAC Player of the Year was ineffective on offense.
Dani Turner led the team with 17 points and shot 50 percent from the floor while Kylyn Rigsby racked up 15 points, five rebounds and a pair of assists and steals.
The game didn’t break open until the third quarter. Mines was up 16-11 after the first and CMU was up by only three points going into halftime. Then…defense happened.
“The girls know what they need to do,” Taylor Wagner said. “The scouting report we kinda go over that and if we had any scout fails in the first half, we kinda talk about that and making sure they know what to do on a particular player. Those are the big things that we prepare all week. They know what they need to do.”
Sydni Brandon led the CMU defense with her nine defensive rebounds that helped push transition put the momentum in the Mavericks’ hands. Brandon ended the night with two points, 10 rebounds, six assists and one steal.
The Orediggers were unable to overcome the horrendous offense outing in the third quarter and despite 18 points in the fourth, the Mavericks still came out with the 12-point win.
Westminster defeated Dixie State 72-69 in the other semifinal matchup following CMU’s victory. So on Saturday it will be a rematch of last year’s RMAC Tournament Championship game that saw the Mavericks come away with a 67-50 win.
