A heavy-weight Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) matchup between the Mavericks and the Mountain Lions, saw the Mavericks winning by just three points in dramatic fashion.
Colorado Mesa University (CMU) was led by its dynamic duo of junior Georgie Dancer who had 21 points along with three steals, and senior Tommy Nuno had 20 points and six rebounds to lead the Mavericks to the victory. Nuno played 39 minutes and Dancer played 38 minutes of the 40-minute long game.
“I’m thrilled with the comeback and the fact that our guys just kept fighting even though things weren’t working great in the second half for us,” CMU Head Coach Mike DeGeorge said. “We still have a ways to go in a lot of our concepts, but they are battling and competing at a really high level, and when you have that part down, the other stuff is just a matter of time.”
CMU was able to stay and the game and eventually take the lead behind their excellent free-throw shooting as they went 16-18, but they also shot 50 percent from the field and 45 percent from behind the arc. Kolton Peterson led the charge for CMU from deep, as he shot 50 percent to score all nine of his points from three in the first half.
In the first half, the Mavericks were able to keep the game in the first 10 minutes as they were down by one, 18-19. CMU battled with the Mountain Lions in the final 10 minutes of the half as both teams tied the game up seven times. The Mavericks shot 62.5 percent from the floor to stay within two points of UCCS at the end of the first half.
“We felt like getting over-extended defensively, taking some chances did hurt us and they beat us in transition a few times, and then we had a lot of turnovers in the half,” DeGeorge said. “We felt from a possession standpoint if we could just clean up a couple of those things it would really help, and we were more sound defensively in the second half but we did get bogged down offensively until the last six minutes when we made those adjustments.”
The Mountain Lions broke the game open in the second half as their lead jumped up to 12 points, but the Mavericks were resilient as they chipped the deficit away one point at a time. CMU only shot 38.46 percent from the field in the second half, but their free-throw shooting kept them in the game and pushed them over the top to win the game as they went 13-14 from the free-throw line in the second.
With 3:41 left in the second half, the Mavericks were down three points when Nuno came screaming into the lane and drew a foul and go to the charity stripe for two shots. With 1:30 left Nuno made a layup to bring within three points. Dancer made two free-throws in the last 25 seconds of the game to take a one-point lead, and he scored the final four points at the free-throw line to push the Mavericks to the win 75-72 in the Lion’s Den.
“The main thing we did, is we were on the road in an adverse environment with a big crowd, and we just stayed poised and stayed in the moment, and I’m really proud of how we’ve grown in that regard and that was a big test for us,” DeGeorge said. “We did a great job, we didn’t get flustered when we got down, so that was great to see.”
CMU only shot 25 percent from behind the arc in the second half, but they battled hard and won on the road in a tough environment.
The Maverick’s next game will be Dec. 7 at 7:30 p.m. against Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Co.
