Conference Player of the Year verses the Defensive Player of the Year. You love to see it.
Friday night will feature Colorado School of Mines’ Denali Pinto and Colorado Mesa University’s Syndi Brandon. Pinto was recently named the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference POTY while Brandon was crowned the RMAC Defensive POTY. It’s a match up that’s definitely worth talking about.
Pinto, who is only a sophomore, is averaging an RMAC best 20.4 points per game and leads the conference in total points with 570 while also standing in first with most made free throws (161). Her counterpart in Syndi Brandon leads the RMAC in steals with 83 and assist/turnover ratio with 2.8.
When asked how CMU can prepare for Pinto going into tonight, Head Coach Taylor Wagner said it’s simply about stepping up and reducing open shots.
“I just think we got a great defensive team. She’s a great offensive player and I don’t think we do anything too majorly drastic,” Wagner said. “The kids just gotta take that challenge on and whoever gets on her has just gotta rise to the challenge and make sure she doesn’t touch the ball.”
For Brandon and the rest of the Mavericks, the challenge is being accepted with open arms.
“Absolutely,” Brandon replied when asked if she is looking forward to the matchup. “I’ve always thought that defenses win championships. That’s what everybody says. But I believe it and I think we will see it on Friday.”
In the first meeting between the two teams, CMU escaped Golden with a 55-53 lead that saw Pinto score only five points and shoot 2-4 from the floor despite playing 31 minutes. That game was also the best outing of the season for CMU’s Danielle Turner as the junior guard racked up 29 points off the bench.
Since the loss to CMU back on Dec. 9, Pinto has scored less than 15 points only once and has averaged 21.8 ppg. Earlier on in the year, she broke the Orediggers’ single-season scoring and free-throws mark in just 27 games.
Sydni Brandon is almost the exact opposite as Pinto. The Grand Junction native is the textbook definition of a defensive player. In the quarterfinal game against MSU-Denver, Brandon scored only two points and didn’t seem to have a problem with it. During the game she also grabbed 11 rebounds, five assists and three steals.
“I just wanna win,” Brandon said. “So if I have zero points and I chip in rebounds, steals [and] and steals, whatever, I’m doing what I wanted to do.”
The CMU defense is still within the top two of best scoring defenses in the entire country allowing their opponents to average only 49.0 ppg. For Mines, they rank as the best offense in the RMAC averaging 69 ppg. However, the Orediggers lost their last three regular season games and averaged only 57.3 points.
“I feel like they all compliment each other very well. They can score a lot of points,” Wagner said on Mines. “So we’re gonna have to do a good job at shutting everybody down. Not just [Pinto].”
The Orediggers recorded a conference season-high 100 points against CSU-Pueblo back on Feb.15 in which five different players scored in double digits.
Friday will test the Mavericks and their ability to play great team-defense and will provide them another chance to play some top-level talent in hopes of playing on Saturday in the RMAC Championship game and eventually the NCAA Tournament next weekend.
