Absolute dominance in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference is what we can take away from this past weekend. The Colorado Mesa University women’s basketball team has not lost back-to-back conference games since Feb. 23 of 2018. CMU is 3-0 in the games following losses to fellow conference opponents in the last two seasons.
The Mavericks responded in the best way after losing a heartbreaking game to Westminster back on Jan. 25 by defeating both Regis (63-57) and Colorado Christian University (61-56) in back-to-back road games. The women improved their RMAC record to 14-1 on the year and 34-3 in the last two seasons combined.
For the better part of the last two months, the Mavericks have had the best scoring defense in the entire nation allowing their opponents to average less than 46 points per game. After Saturday, CMU still leads the country in that category despite allowing two 50-point games. They did lose their spot as the number one team in opponents field goal percentage.
Regis was a more stable win for CMU. The game on Friday marks the third straight win against the Rangers and it was Daniella Turner who took the scoring burden. Turner, racked up her seventh game this season where she has put up more than 20 points. The Florida native dished out 27 points, seven rebounds and three steals. She followed it up with a 17-point, two rebounds and three assists performance the following night against CCU.
The Mavericks played a tale of two games against their front range rivals. Regis held CMU to just 20 points and 27.1 percent from the field in the first half. CCU did almost the same thing, but instead in the second half of their contest. The Mavericks made only three field goals and scored ten points in the third quarter.
Those faulty halves/quarters that expose where CMU has failed to play complete games on a consistent basis doesn’t necessarily highlight bad basketball on the Mavericks’ part. Instead, it shows how competitive teams are when the best team in the conference is on their schedule.
CCU has always played a relatively annoying role if you are CMU. The Cougars defeated CMU last season in Lakewood which was the only other conference loss on the year. This go-around, the Mavericks were able to keep the Cougars from grabbing a lead the entire game.
CMU made 10 three-pointers against CCU, seven of them in the second half. The three players to score in double digits (Dani Turner, Kylyn Rigsby and Kelsey Siemons) all made three from beyond the arc.
Back to the tale-of-two-games story, the Maverick offense had two different areas of attack from Friday compared to Saturday. Compared to the 10 made threes against CCU, CMU went 3-7 after going 0-12 from deep in the first half against Regis.
The two defenses were giving different zone and man defenses that forced the Mavericks to what they can get so if you are looking to find some deeper meaning behind why the offense was so diverse over the weekend…don’t. The same thing happened back on Jan. 10 against New Mexico Highlands where the Cowgirls zoned up on defense and the Mavericks shot 34 shots from three-point range.
Moving forward, Taylor Wagner’s squad will get to enjoy the luxury of Brownson Arena, where they are undefeated at so far this year, and host the two teams who they played less than two weeks ago. Westminster who ended the Mavericks’ 14-game winning streak, and Dixie State who CMU beat in St.George in their first contest.
It is at the point in the season where CMU has seen every team at least once so, looking ahead, there should be no surprises. Out of the remaining seven games in the regular season, four of them will be at home which lies as a valuable asset for CMU in their hopes to host yet another RMAC Tournament.
The next game against Westminster is on Feb.7 and will start at 5:30 p.m.
