This is the toughest part of the season so far. Two games against two teams in the top four of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference…on the road.
The Colorado Mesa University women’s basketball team is entering a four-game road trip that will force them to go through two tough Utah rivals in Dixie State and Westminster College. Both the Trailblazers and the Griffins trail the Mavericks in the conference standings by only a couple of games and this trip will be testing the Mavericks’ toughness as they get away from comfortable Brownson Arena.
“I’d say we know that everyone is going to give us their best game especially in conference right now being undefeated,” junior forward Sierra McNicol said. “Just have to stay prepared for everybody that we play because we know that everyone is gonna give us their best shot.”
McNicol, along with other teammates, have been battling some knee issues the last week or so. However, the South Jordan, UT native is still performing despite the bumps and bruises. McNicol had a season-high 13 rebounds against Fort Lewis and racked up six points to go with it.
Dixie State (12-5, 7-4) is moving to Div. I next year and currently has the second best offense in the RMAC averaging 68.9 points per game. The Trailblazers have two players who average over 12 points per game in forward Ali Franks (13.8) and shooting guard Madi Loftus (12.1). Franks is coming off her second best scoring performance of the season where she put up 26 points against Regis University in the Trailblazers last outing.
“Winning breeds two things,” Head Coach Taylor Wagner said. “Complacency and cockiness…and we don’t want either one of those. We wanna be confident and those are the things we talk about. We just can’t get complacent against any team or overlook any team.”
CMU has been shooting the ball off and on in the last couple of weeks. In their last two games against Adams State and Fort Lewis, the Mavericks ousted the Grizzlies by 25 points but then followed it up with the lowest scoring victory in program history against Fort Lewis the night after. Against ASU, CMU made 12 three-pointers and shot 42 percent overall from the field. Against FLC, the offense shot a much worse 30 percent from the floor and made only two three-pointers.
Because of the recent inconsistencies on offense, the defense will, once again, be the strong suit CMU”s hand. The best offense in the RMAC and the entire nation has been the card to deal almost every game for Taylor Wagner. The Mavericks allow their opponents to score only 45.2 points per game shoot and allow a nation’s best 30.9 field-goal percentage.
“That’s what we hang out hat on. That’s what Coach [Wagner] preaches all the time,” McNicol said. “It’s fun seeing success with it so I feel like that is our emphasis every game.”
Westminster (15-2,10-1) will test that steadfast defense even better than Dixie State will. The Griffins are currently shooting the best out of anyone in the conference with a team floor shooting percentage of 46.5. The three junior studs in Mariah Martin, Hunter Krebs and Sarah McGinley all average over 15 ppg and Martin currently has scored the third most points of any women in the RMAC.
“That’s gonna be a big game, as well as Dixie State,” Wagner said. “They’re one game behind us so there’s a lot at stake right now and there’s still a lot of basketball to be played. We wanna go in there and give our best shot and we know they’re gonna give their best shot. We just like to stretch our lead on everybody.”
Last year, at this same point in time actually, CMU was riding a 17-game winning streak that was ended by Westminster during this exact same roadtrip. The Griffins would later be upended by the Mavericks in the RMAC Tournament Championship in March.
