The Mavericks were able to get the 89-55 victory against South Dakota Mines (SDM) as the team’s starters put on a solid performance throughout the night.
With playoffs approaching quickly, the Colorado Mesa University (CMU) Women’s Basketball team is seeing a great cohesiveness with their five starters. For the second game in a row the starters have all seen double digit points.
“We really talked about being focused and we know it is coming to the end. There are weekends, it’s down to single digit weekends for some of these girls and their careers to be over and I think they are realizing that and they are putting a lot of effort out there. They are starting to click too. Those starting five are really seeing each other, sharing the ball, everyone is scoring in double digits and it is just making it a little bit harder for teams to guard us,” Head Coach Taylor Wagner said.
Redshirt junior guard Monica Brooks has stepped up and found the confidence that all her teammates have seen in her throughout the season. In the game against SDM, Brooks scored 13 points as she went 6-7 from the field. She found success on defense as she was able to get seven rebounds.
Brooks has become the Mavericks low post player that they have not had in a while but having her has made a difference on the court this season.
“She is very comfortable with her back to the basket. I honestly feel like she has more in her too. In practice we have seen it, where she has a little more in her arsenal then she has shown in the game. She is getting more confident and she is scoring from anywhere on the floor,” Wagner said.
The dominance that graduate student Sophie Anderson has been able to find in the past four games has added another level to not only her game but has also shown other teams that she is a force to be reckoned with on defense and offense.
Anderson held the Hardrockers best shooter Ryan Weiss to only six points on Saturday. She was able to add to her rebounding total as she grabbed eight more rebounds this weekend. Seven of those rebounds were on the offensive side giving her team more chances to score.
While Anderson has shined defensively throughout the season her role offensively has increased since the second half of the Mavericks season has begun. Anderson broke her career high she set back on Jan.15 last night as she was the second highest scorer for CMU with 19 points.
“ I think they have encouraged me all season. They are like you can knock down the shots, you can make that drive so I think they have really helped build that confidence too and I think it is paying off. They put so much pressure on Dani and Mariah [Martin] that it opens the door for Kels[Kelsey Siemons] me up for threes and stuff,” Anderson said.
Graduate student Daniella Turner led the Mavericks with 25 points with a majority of her points coming in the second half. Turner also was perfect from the free throw line and had five rebounds of her own.
The Mavericks as a team shot 54.3% from the field with the second quarter being the Mavericks best quarter from the field as they made 66.67% of their shots. Fourteen of the Mavericks points were on second chance opportunities throughout the game.
The Mavericks have a busy week as they will play three games in the next seven days. They will head to New Mexico first to take on New Mexico Highlands University on Feb.8 at 5 p.m.
