With 12 new faces, late-game situations aren’t always practiced leading up to the first game of the season and it came back to bite the Mavericks this last weekend.
In the first game of the weekend, Colorado Mesa University played No. 20 St. Edwards University in a very close game, and then they faced another tough opponent in Dallas Baptist University that somehow was an even closer game. Senior Tommy Nuno led the Mavericks in scoring with 36 combined points through both games. Junior Georgie Dancer led CMU in assists with nine.
“Honestly, we aren’t executing at a high-level right now, but those are two high-level teams, and for us to be as competitive as we were it speaks to what our team can accomplish this season,” CMU Head Coach Mike DeGeorge said. “Obviously we’re very disappointed in the outcome of the games because we had opportunities to win both games, but we weren’t able to get it done.”
Against SEU, the Mavericks were led in scoring by senior Michael Skinner with 23 who also led CMU in rebounds with eight. Despite Skinners 23 points, Ashton Spears of the Hilltoppers hit a buzzer-beater three to give SEU the dramatic win.
The Mavericks didn’t shoot the ball well in the first half as they went 34.8 percent from the field, and they went 1-5 from the three-point arc as well. The bright spot was that they went 12-15 from the charity stripe to keep them in the game 29-37.
Nuno opened the second half with a quick layup nine seconds into the half, but the Hilltoppers quickly responded. The Mavericks were able to chip away the lead by getting into the paint, drawing fouls and converting tough shots. With 10 minutes left in the second half, the Mavericks only trailed by one point.
The final minutes of the second half was fought hard by both teams as neither team could gain clear control of the game. Spears for SEU had 22 points in the second half to push his total to 28, and Spears kept the Hilltoppers on top to get the win 79-76.
“When you have this many new guys, your first focus is, we have to get the first 38 minutes right to be in the game, so we have done very few late-game situations because there is just so many teaching points and so many reps we needed to get just to get prepared for the core of the game,” DeGeorge said.
“There are certainly somethings we would have done a little bit differently… we didn’t have certain things in that we would go to in late-game situations normally, but we just aren’t to that stage, and if we would have put that stuff in, I don’t know if we would’ve been sound enough defensively to stay in the game.”
In the final game of the D2 Conference Challenge, the Mavericks played Dallas Baptist University. The Patriots and CMU were a great matchup for each other as both teams have similar styles of play.
The first half was Nuno’s half as he led all scorers with 13 points, and he added three rebounds and two assists as well. Through five minutes of play, the Patriots led 11-10 and neither team could gain more than a two-point led until there were five minutes and thirty seconds left in the first half.
CMU’s Kolton Peterson went 2-3 from behind the three-point line for six points through nine minutes. Dancer was 0-4 from the field in the first, but he had six rebounds and three assists as he found a way to contribute despite his slow start.
In the second half, Nuno added four fouls to his one in the first half as he fouled out of the game through eight minutes in the second. With Nuno in foul trouble, the Mavericks looked to Dancer to produce, and he rose to the occasion as he scored 11 points in the second half. Peterson made three from behind the arc in the second to increase his total to 15.
The Patriot’s largest lead in the second was seven points, but CMU again dwindled the lead back down to one point. Unfortunately, the Mavericks couldn’t get the lead in the final minute of the game as they dropped their final game of the D2 Conference Challenge 66-67.
CMU’s next game will be Nov. 22 at 2:30 p.m. against Pacific Union College in Gunnison, Colo. for the Comfort Inn Classic.
