This season is definitely the start the Colorado Mesa University men’s basketball team needed after only winning eight games last year.
Before Thursday the Mavericks had won five in a row; the last win being against Western State on Nov. 28. The exhilarating five-game winning streak would come to an end in a 74-62 loss Thursday night against Westminster College, however.
Westminster came into Thursday riding a four-game winning streak of their own averaging 77.5 points per game. The Mavericks, before Thursday, had not scored under 80 in any of their last five games. That would not be the case against the Griffins.
Dayon Goodman led the Griffins shooting 10-20 on the floor to score 30 points and rack up five assists on the night. Goodman is Westminster’s leading scorer with 157 points on the season and has a team-high 58.2 field goal percentage.
Goodman’s offensive showcase was matched by Connor Nichols for the Mavericks putting up 23 points. CJ Davis was the only other Maverick to score in double digits as he racked up 11 points in the 29 minutes he played on Thursday.
By the end of the first half, the game at that point was dead even with the Griffins leading by only three (36-33). CJ Davis went scoreless in the first half and only two Mavericks had made more than one basket.
The scoreboard does not show much difference in stats between CMU and Westminster in terms of dominant play; however, the Mavericks only possessed the lead twice and their largest lead only being by three points.
The main differential in stats, in which was also the game changer, was the points off turnovers. The Griffins turned their 12 forced turnovers into 17 points while the Mavericks only managed to score nine points, despite forcing 15 turnovers.
The Mavericks were on a high scoring streak in the most recent five games, in which they averaged 90 points per game. CMU would then only score 29 points in the second half in the evident 74-62 loss.
Emilio Acedo, who has been one of CMU’s most effective scores throughout the course of the season so far, only managed to score eight points and have one assist on Thursday.
One bad night does not overshadow what has been an amazing two weeks of basketball for CMU. The team is on track to go back to former winning ways if they keep up with the consistent play they conveyed during their five-game hot streak.
The Mavericks will play their first series of road games as they travel to the southern part of the western slope to take on Fort Lewis College on Dec. 8, then migrate down to Alamosa, Colo to play Adams State on Dec. 9.
CMU only won one of four games in which they played either Adams State or Fort Lewis last season.
