The Women’s Basketball team has started out red hot, going 5-0, winning by a considerable margin in all five games. The main forces in all of those victories for the Mavericks was the underclassmen duo of freshman guard Mason Rowland and sophomore forward Olivia Reed. After going 13-16 last year, and being picked to finish just sixth place in the preseason coaches poll, the Mavericks are turning heads with their dominant start. In fact, Colorado Mesa University (CMU) is averaging a 16-point margin of victory to this point.
The young duo of Reed and Rowland has proven too much for teams to handle. Reed is averaging 19.4 points and 14.6 rebounds a game while Rowland is logging 17.4 points per game (ppg) and shooting over 42% from deep.
However, the Mavericks are not just a top heavy team, as the rest of their starting five are playing great basketball too.
Redshirt sophomore Josee Steadman is their third leading scorer with 9 ppg and posting a blazing 50% mark from behind the arc. Junior Kylie Kravig is leading the team in assists and redshirt senior Laura Gutierrez is averaging a respectable 7 points and 3 rebounds.
The Mavericks knocked out their first three wins in the DII Conference Commissioners Association Tip-Off Classic in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.
Reed won the tournament MVP, totaling 65 total points and 44 rebounds, including a 30 point, 16 rebound double-double outing against the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. In Rowland’s first ever college basketball game, she tallied 22 points and 6 rebounds, and went on to average 16 points a game over the weekend playing off the bench.
The Mavs played their first pair of home games last weekend and won both by a wide margin, defeating West Texas A&M (WTAMU) 70-51 on Friday, and claiming a 70-54 victory over the University of Texas Permian Basin (UTPB) Saturday night.
“For the first home game of the year, I thought they played phenomenal,” said Head Coach Taylor Wagner.
And played phenomenally they did, out-rebounding WTAMU 41 to 31, out-scoring them 30-22 in the paint, and doubling the Buffs’ bench points 32-16.
The scoring surge from the rotation was led by Rowland, as she notched an impressive 22 points off the bench. She finished 6/13 shooting, going 3/3 from beyond the arc, and 7/10 from the free throw line. These stats are even more impressive coming from the first home game of her career.
“I’ve come and watched games here and the environment was just as it was tonight, it’s just such an awesome feeling that everyone supports you and your team is always going to be there to help you” said Rowland.
Reed also had quite the outing Friday night, notching a double-double with 23 points on 11/20 shooting, while grabbing 11 boards.
“I think my teammates did a great job at just getting me the right looks, and finding me when I’m open, and just putting me in the best position to get a good bucket. I also think just confidence and having a different mindset,” said Reed.
Both players had similarly impressive outings Saturday, despite the suffocating defensive display of UTPB. Reed filled up the box score with nine points, five assists, 2 blocks, a steal and a staggering career-high 18 boards. Rowland led the way offensively, scoring 19 points and grabbing five boards, on a slow night from the field for the Mavericks.
CMU was able to grab the win, even though they went only 24 for 59 from the field. This was largely due to the 1-1-3 trap box ran by UTPB, forcing a staggering 40 3-point tries from the Mavs. They were able to convert on just 12 of those, but a perfect 10/10 from the charity stripe let the Mavericks steam roll the Falcons.
“I said we were gonna have to make some threes, and we made 12 tonight and I think that was the difference in the game, we stepped up, and made some big threes for us,” said Wagner.
With a perfect 5-0 record, CMU now looks to Fort Hays State and Colorado Christian University before their first official RMAC against the Colorado School of Mines.
