After an exciting end to the regular season, the Colorado Mesa University (CMU) men’s basketball team won a share of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC). By doing so, CMU was able to host the RMAC postseason tournament. Unfortunately for the Mavericks, they were bounced out by the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) in the semi-finals.
To be able to host the RMAC postseason tournament, CMU needed to finish or tie for first in the conference standings. Going into the last two games of the season, CMU trailed Fort Lewis College (FLC) in the standings by one game. After CMU won their last two games, FLC lost on the last day of the season to tie with the Mavs in the standings. However, because CMU beat FLC earlier in the year, the tiebreaker went to the Mavs, and they claimed host for the tournament.
As the number one seed in the tournament, CMU hosted #8 seed Metro State University Denver (MSU-D) in the quarterfinals. The Mavs battled a pesky MSU-D team, but ultimately won 82-72. Redshirt sophomore Blaise Threatt has carried the Mavericks offense this season, but in the game against Metro, the guard battled foul trouble. Luckily for the Mavericks, others stepped up, with freshman guard Elijah Knudsen hitting three, three-pointers, and redshirt sophomore Christopher Speller adding 10 points. Even with the four fouls, Threatt managed to score 23 points in the game.
Redshirt sophomore Trevor Baskin also stepped up big, scoring 18 points on only eight shots. In the game, Baskin joined Threatt as the second Maverick to join the 1,000 point club this season. The all team leading scorer in CMU history is Jon Baskin, Trevor’s father.
“It’s a tremendous honor, and I also think it’s really cool my Dad is a 2,000 point scorer here… I’m not at that milestone, I have a long way to go.” Baskin said, laughing, “I mean, my teammates do everything to help me get points up, and Blaise, Blaise makes my life easier, getting me open. So, it’s all credit to my teammates, really.”
More awards and acknowledgments continued days later, as head coach Mike DeGeorge was named RMAC coach of the year, redshirt sophomore Mac Riniker won RMAC defensive player of the year, and Threatt and Baskin were named to the RMAC 1st team. Redshirt sophomore Levi Dombro also was an award winner, winning the Summit Award, given to the athlete with the highest grade point average competing in the RMAC tournament. Dombro currently supports a 4.0 GPA as an environmental science major.
After the quarterfinals wrapped up, it was time for the semis, with the games in Brownson Arena. Fans were treated to amazing basketball, as all four teams were ranked top 16 nationally, and all four teams had 25 wins or more on the season, the most combined wins of any conference semifinals.
The first night one seed CMU had a grudge match against four seed CSM. From the opening tip-off, points were hard to come by, with both teams missing both easy and difficult shots. CSM then got into a rhythm later in the first half, and established a small lead.
The Mavericks then went on a late scoring run at the end of the first half to close the CSM lead. On the last play of the first half, Baskin hit a buzzer beater three-pointer from just in front half court, closing the CSM lead to just three. Unfortunately for Baskin, that would be the only shot he hit on the night, shooting 1/9, as he and the rest of the Mavericks shot only 31% in the 64-53 loss.
Offensively for the Mavericks, it was clear the team looked for Threatt to carry them. The guard continued his 20 point scoring streak to five games, scoring 25 on the night.
“Hats off to him. We thought we made him take a lot of difficult shots, and he still had 25 [points], so he’s really a tremendous player” CSM forward Adam Thistlewood said.
Following the CMU game, #3 seed Black Hills State University (BHSU) faced off against Fort Lewis. Many Mavs fans stuck around for the game and were treated to a high scoring affair, seeing FLC beat BHSU 83-78. The RMAC player of the year Joel Scott scored 29 points for BHSU, while the RMAC’s leading scorer Akuel Kot dropped 32 for FLC.
Fort Lewis carried the momentum into the championship game, beating Mines 82-76. Kot stayed hot, scoring 23 points on 8/11 shooting en route to winning tournament MVP.
For the Mavericks, they will likely enter the NCAA tournament as a #5 seed in the south central region this Saturday.
