The Mavericks fell 77-83 to the Skyhawks as their offense struggled in the final ten minutes of the game.
Redshirt freshman guard Blaise Threatt finished with a double-double with a team-high 18 points and he pulled down 12 rebounds in the game. He shot eight of 15 from the field and he dished out five assists against Fort Lewis College (FLC).
The fifth-leading scorer in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, Riley Farris, scored a game-high of 27 points. He shot nine of 17 from the field and pulled down eight rebounds in the game.
“We definitely wanted to make [Farris] uncomfortable and the guys had a read that they could make if they wanted to double or not. He goes so quick sometimes, it is sometimes hard to get there, and when he takes longer, you are thinking that he is looking to pass and you get caught in between. He does a nice job of that,” Head Coach Mike DeGeorge.
The game went back-and-forth the entire time as the lead changed seven times and the game was tied 11 different times. The trend was set in the opening five minutes of the game, as Colorado Mesa University (CMU) held an 8-5 lead with 15:10 left in the first half.
The Skyhawks quickly tied the game up at 11 with 13:52 left in the first half as Akuel Kot made a floater on the fastbreak. Neither team gained the advantage at the ten-minute mark of the first half as the game remained tied at 17.
Redshirt senior guard Jared Small hit two consecutive three-pointers to give CMU a four-point lead. Threatt got an offensive rebound for the second-chance basket to go up by six points.
FLC took a 28-25 lead with 5:57 left in the first half as they answered with nine straight points.
CMU and FLC tied the game three different times in the final five minutes of the half. Brendan Boatwright tied the game at 39 at the free-throw line and Farris gave FLC a three-point lead as he nailed a shot from beyond the arc.
Threatt carved into the paint with 44 seconds left in the half to finish at the rim to bring the game within one point. Small finished the first half on a high note as he drilled a buzzer beater three-pointer over his defender to take a 44-42 lead.
“They started to face guard me on the wings in the second half even if I was in the deep corner, they weren’t going to help at all. It was just late reads so even when they did help off at one point, they weren’t really seeing me,” Small said.
The Mavericks offense picked up right up where they left off as they built a nine-point lead with 15:24 left in the game. Small continued to roll offensively as he got into the paint to finish through contact, and he went to the free-throw line to convert the three-point play.
Threatt carved into the paint to finish at the rim and give CMU their biggest lead of the game of 10 points with 12:05 left in the game.
The Skyhawks offense kicked into gear as they scored six straight points to cut the lead down to four points one minute later. FLC tied the game at 63 points with 8:21 left in the game as Farris was able to hit a jumper over his defender.
Farris gave the Skyhawks their biggest lead of the game of six points with 5:47 left in the game. The Mavericks cut the lead back down to two points one minute later as redshirt freshman forward Trevor Baskin answered with four straight points.
FLC was able to build their lead back up to six points and hold it there to pull out the 83-77 win.
The Mavericks shot 42.6% from the field and 30.3% from the three-point line in the game. CMU scored 38 points in the paint and their bench contributed 23 points.
“The biggest factor for me was when you get three-pointers out of rhythm, you just don’t make a very high percentage of them and that certainly happened in the second half. In the first half, we were catching them in rhythm, anticipating, here comes the ball, this guy isn’t guarding me, I’m going to be able to shoot this with confidence, and I thought we did a great job of that,” DeGeorge said.
Small was CMU’s second-leading scorer with 17 points and he shot four of seven from beyond the three-point arc. He finished the game with two blocks and one steal.
CMU’s next game is Saturday, Jan. 29 at 7:30 p.m. against Western Colorado University in Brownson Arena.
