The Mavericks avenged their loss to the Orediggers earlier in the season as they pulled out a 72-62 win on senior night.
Redshirt senior guards Georgie Dancer and Jared Small are the two seniors for Colorado Mesa University (CMU) and their careers were both honored prior to the game.
Small was the Maverick’s second-leading scorer with 17 points as he shot 5-11 from the field in the game. He made four shots from beyond the three-point arc, and he pulled down five rebounds in the game.
“It felt weird early on, it was like a weird vibe because we were doing the ceremony so it kind of throws you out of your rhythm a little bit. I feel like once we settled in, Blaise started finding me, and the way that he drives and how easily he beats defenders, they have to come with other guys. So, I’m getting wide-open shots, so I have to credit him. All I have to do is stand there, catch the ball and shoot it. That’s an easy job in my opinion,” Small said.
Redshirt freshman guard Blaise Threatt could not be stopped by the Orediggers as Threatt finished the game with 27 points on 50% shooting from the field. He dished out four assists and pulled down five rebounds against the Colorado School of Mines (CSM).
The Orediggers jumped out to an 8-4 lead in the opening five minutes of the game, six of the eight points coming from three-pointers. CSM’s offense continued to execute at a high level as they built a 10-point lead with 11:28 left in the first half as Brendan Sullivan.
Trent Dykema and Kai Barr pushed the Orediggers lead up to 13 points at the free-throw line 30 seconds later. Redshirt freshman forward Trevor Baskin answered with four consecutive points of his own to cut the CSM lead under double digits with 9:54 left in the first half.
Each time the Mavericks cut the lead under 10 points, the Orediggers answered with a bucket of their own.
Redshirt freshman guard Reece Johnson cut CSM’s lead down to nine points as he carved into the paint to finish with a floater over his defender. Johnson’s basket marked the beginning of an 18 to five-run that the Mavericks closed the first half on to take a 36-34 lead into the break.
Threatt scored 13 of his 27 points in the first half, and Sullivan scored 13 of his 30 points in the first half as well.
“Mainly it was a defensive effort, and we did hit some shots. We had some good stops in the paint, and we were able to finish in there down the stretch of the first half. When we found cracks in their defense, we were able to finish a little bit better and the defensive effort changed. We were getting hurt in transition, we had some uncharacteristic sloppy turnovers and we kind of cleaned some of that going into the half and that gave us momentum for the second half,” Head Coach Mike DeGeorge said.
Sullivan added to his tally as he tied the game up at 36 with 18:27 left in the game as he carved into the paint to finish at the rim. Johnson came back to finish at the rim through contact, and he converted the three-point play at the free-throw line.
Redshirt freshman guard Mac Riniker pushed CMU’s lead up to six points as he buried his first three-pointer of the game with 17:01 left in the game. Threatt hit two shots at the free-throw line to give the Mavericks a 44-36 lead a minute later, but Sullivan answered with a three-pointer of his own.
Riniker came back with his second three-pointer of the game to immediately put CMU back up by eight points with 16:02 left in the game. Small gave the Mavericks their first double-digit lead of the game as he hit a three-pointer two minutes later.
Adam Krasovec scored five straight points for CSM to cut the lead down to 46-52 with 9:55 left in the game. Small, and redshirt freshman guard Isaac Jessup both were sent to the free-throw line and went two for two to give CMU a 10-point lead with 6:57 left in the second half.
Threatt got sent to the free-throw line 50 seconds later, and he gave the Mavericks their biggest lead of the game of 12-points.
Sullivan answered with a three-pointer with 5:07 left in the game, and Krasovec hit two shots at the free-throw line to cut the lead down to 51-58.
Threatt and Small pushed CMU’s lead back up to double-digits three times from 3:21 to 1:52 left in the game as the Orediggers were relentless in their attack.
Sullivan hit his fourth three-pointer of the game with 1:31 left in the second half to cut the lead down to eight points. He got to the free-throw line 20 seconds later but went one of two which left CMU up by seven points.
The Mavericks went four of six from the free-throw line in the final seconds of the game to help pull out the 10-point victory over one of their biggest rivals.
Sullivan scored 30 points in the game on 11-21 shooting from the field and he made six three-pointers in the game.
“The goal was to provide a little bit more help off of some of their back-up guards so that we can limit their post opportunities and their driving lanes, Boone and Sullivan because they have to go for them to score enough. So, we put Mac [Riniker] on [Ben] Boone and Georgie [Dancer] on [Brendan] Sullivan. Now we are switching a lot, so they ended up with multiple matchups,” DeGeorge said. “You just can’t let them both go off and I thought for the most part Sullivan hit tough shots. We had a couple of just great possessions, well-contested threes right at the end of the clock and he bangs down a three and you are just like ‘he’s a great player.’ You just have to keep making him earn it.”
The Mavericks shot 40% from the field and 33.3% from beyond the arc. They shot their second-highest percentage from the free-throw line in the game to pull out the win as they shot 85% from the charity stripe as a team.
CMU’s next game is Thursday, Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m. against Western Colorado University to kick-off their final regular-season road trip.
