The Mavericks refuse to be slowed down.

The Colorado Mesa University women’s basketball team proved they are the best team in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference at this point the season after a successful two-game homestand.

CMU defeated both the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (UCCS) and Colorado School of Mines (CSM) by holding both teams to 45 points and 30 percent or less shooting from the field.

On Friday, the Mavericks played a well-rounded game against the Mountain Lions and showed why their defense is the best in the conference. To put this into simpler words, UCCS only made five shots from the field in the first half.

CMU was able to hold UCCS to a 19.2 field goal percentage and 30 points in the first half. The Mavericks did enough on offense to get ahead early as senior Jaylyn Duran lead the team in scoring with 14 points in the first half.

Duran would finish the game with 20 points, six rebounds, a steal and a block.

CMU would have a slow third quarter against UCCS but were able to find a second wind in the fourth outscoring the Mountain Lions 24-7. Kelsey Siemons provided crucial assistance on Friday as the sophomore forward scored 13 points, grabbed six rebounds, three blocks and three assists.

The explosive fourth quarter would allow CMU to come away with the 67-45 win.

Saturday wasn’t as sound but proved even more how good this Maverick defense is.

Tori Catlett recorded a career-high seven blocks as she helped the CMU defense hold CSM to 32.7 field goal percentage and 45 points. The Orediggers made only five field goals in the first half and were not able to regain the momentum for the rest of the game.

In the second quarter, Mines went 0-13 from the field in which made it the first time this season CMU held a team to 0.0 percent shooting in a quarter.

Jaylyn Duran lead the Mavericks in scoring for the second consecutive night as Duran was responsible for half of CMU’s points by racking up 25.

While averaging 22.3 ppg on the season, Duran leads the RMAC in scoring and is now only 70 points away from breaking the 1,000 career points milestone.

No other Maverick scored in double digits on Saturday but the defense was enough to get the job done. Catlett, along with her seven blocks, grabbed seven rebounds while teammate Sydni Brandon lead the team with 11 board grabs and had three assists to go with it.

Brandon leads the nation in turnover to assists ratio and continues to be a consistent spark in the CMU starting lineup.

On the season so far, the CMU defense allows only 50.6 points per game and have an assist to turnover ratio 1.29 which are both the best in the RMAC.

With the pair of wins, Head Coach Taylor Wagner and his team improved to 6-1 overall and 3-0 in RMAC play. Next up, the women will continue RMAC play but will travel to the front range to take on MSU-Denver and Chadron State from Dec. 15-16.

Images courtesy of Mikayla Olave | The Criterion and Matt Kennedy