The Mavericks avenge their only loss of the season as they beat the Mountaineers 93-77.
Freshman forward Trevor Baskin registered the first double-double of his career with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Baskin registered his double-double in the first half as he ended the half with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
“I’m getting more and more confidence each game, but I’m feeling much more comfortable in the system,” Baskin said. “Obviously when one of our star players is out, we have to have that next-man-up mentality, so I just wanted to not let Ethan down and let him know that if he is out of the game, he doesn’t have to worry.”
Senior guard Georgie Dancer finished as the Mavericks leading scorer with 17 points along with three rebounds and four assists.
The Mountaineer’s offense started the game out hot as they made their first four shots to give them a six-point lead with 17:14 left in the first half. Colorado Mesa University’s (CMU) offense kicked into gear as they scored 11 unanswered points to take a five-point lead.
Cole Sienknecht made a three-pointer to bring Western Colorado University (WCU) within two-points with 13:17 left in the half. CMU was able to get their lead back up to 10-points as freshman guard Blaise Threatt hit a jump shot with 10:34 left in the first half.
The Mavericks kept their foot on the gas pedal as they expanded their lead to 15-points with 6:33 left in the half. The Mountaineers weren’t going away though as they eight straight points to cut CMU’s lead back to single digits.
CMU ended the first half on a 15 to four run to give themselves an 18-point lead going into the locker room.
The Mavericks ended the first half with 36 points in the paint as CMU attacked the Mountaineer’s smaller lineup.
“We just did not handle their small lineup very well that first night. To their credit, their kids compete really hard and they stretch you out with all of their shooting and I just thought we did a way better job tonight, not getting bogged down to force it into the post but taking it when it was there,” Head Coach Mike DeGeorge said.
Redshirt freshman Mac Riniker extended the Mavericks lead to 20-points as he made a layup with the first 30 seconds of the second half.
The Mountaineers offense worked hard in the opening five minutes to try and get CMU’s lead back to single digits. Matthew Ragsdale buried a three-pointer with 15:30 left in the game which cut the Mavericks lead down to 11-points.
Each time WCU cut the Mavericks lead down to 11 or 12 points, CMU immediately got their lead back to up to 18 or more points.
Kade Juelfs went to the free-throw line with 9:09 left in the game, and he cut CMU’s lead down to 12-points. The Mavericks were able to get their lead and keep their lead around 18 points for the rest of the game.
Freshman guard Blaise Threatt got a steal and started down the floor on the fast break. The Mountaineers defenders didn’t give Threatt much pressure down the floor as he was able to get into the paint and give CMU their biggest lead of the game of 21-points.
WCU was able to cut the Mavericks lead down to 16 points with 12 seconds left in the game for the last basket of the game.
Threatt finished the game as the Maverick’s second-leading scorer with 16 points along with four rebounds and four assists.
“I definitely feel 100%. My shoulder is a little bit sore still because I got hit in practice a couple of times so it’s still a bit sore. My shoulder is 100%, I hurt [my leg] last time we played at Western. I got a hard dead leg and it gave me a leg contusion, but my leg is good and my shoulder is good,” Threatt said. “So, there is no excuse for us to not go out there and for me to compete every night and be the best version of myself.”
CMU controlled the paint as they ended the game with 56 points in the paint and finished with 21 more rebounds than WCU.
The Mavericks bench scored 50 of their 93 points in the game.
The Maverick’s final regular-season game is Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. against Fort Lewis College in Brownson Arena.
