Duran outshined anyone and everyone on Friday night. The RMAC Player of the Year put up 26 points to lead the Colorado Mesa University women’s basketball team to a 75-65 win over Texas A&M Commerce (TAMC) in the first round of the Div. II NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.
“She’s the South Central Region Player of the Year for a reason,” TAMC Head Coach Jason Burton said. “She’s gonna score the ball and she hit some big shots. I don’t think a lot of those big shots she hit were easy.”
Throughout the entire game, the Lions were pressing from beyond the half-court line. CMU turned the ball over 17 times thanks to the press but the second half, more specifically the 29-point third quarter is where the tables shifted permanently.
“We watched film and knew that was part of their game,” Head coach Taylor Wagnor said. “If you don’t handle it, you’re gonna see it more. If you handle it, they’ll do it a little bit less. We struggled a little bit earlier on but I think we figured it out.”
You could say there were some first-half jitters that the Mavericks had to fight through. The full-court press by TAMC forced three CMU turnovers within the first three minutes while Kylyn Rigbsy racked up two early fouls in the first 90 seconds. However, all it took was a couple of three-pointers from Duran to allow the Mavericks to find their stride.
From that point on it was back and forth in the first quarter, both the Mavericks and Lions had energetic floor play and aggressive defense.
Duran, who was awarded South Central Regional Player of the Year earlier on in the week, lead CMU with 11 points in the first while Natalie Bartle racked up six of her own. The Mavericks shot 66.7 percent from the field and would lead 20-18 going into the second quarter.
Players off the bench such as Katrina Chandler and Bartle saw the floor a majority of the time in the first half due to players like Rigbsy and Sydni Brandon getting into early foul trouble. In the first half, Brandon was only on the floor for five minutes while Rigsby played only one. Turnovers were also the biggest factor for the Mavericks in the first half. The Lions forced 11 while only allowing five.
It felt as if the greater power of adversity was heavier than normal as CMU headed into halftime down 30-35.
Duran was the only consistent scorer for CMU at the half as she racked up 17 points while the Lions had four different players scoring seven or more.
The Mavericks has their starting five back out on the floor to start the third and all the momentum seemed to shift in favor of the home team from that point on. After Kylyn Rigbsy sunk and and-one and then a three-pointer to give the Mavericks their biggest lead of the night at that point, the shift was felt inside Brownson.
“For me, it was having our five back out on the floor,” Duran said. “Right when we got onto the court after halftime it was like ‘okay now we have our core group so let’s it done…We didn’t look back from there”
On the very last play of the third, Sydni Brandon got the pass from Karina Brandon and stepped back to nail the buzzer beater three to replicate the same reaction in Bronwson she caused last week in the RMAC Championship when she sank the halfcourt shot at halftime.
“I feel like we are just really strong mentally,” Sydni Brandon said. “I don’t wanna say these game are more important but they’re more important. It’s the playoffs so we are just all stepping up.”
The RMAC Tournament MVP would end the night with seven points, six rebounds and seven assists. Kelsey Siemons was second in scoring with 13 points while grabbing six boards.
The Mavericks go into the fourth with a 59-44 advantage, which was their biggest of the game.
TAMC was unable to come back from a third quarter where they allowed 75 percent shooting and 29 points by CMU. Leading scorer Princess Davis put up eight points in the fourth but it was not enough to erase the double-digit deficit. The Mavericks would make four more three’s in the fourth to solidify their eventual 75-65 victory.
Rigbsy, whose presence was missed in the first half, came back in to score 11 points and grabbed at least one rebound, assist, steal and a block. CMU, as a team, shot 53.2 percent from the field and made 12 three-pointers.
