The Mavericks beat the Rangers 73-52 to reach the 20-win mark for the seventh time in the last ten seasons under Head Coach Taylor Wagner.
Graduate student guard Daniella Turner scored a game-high 24 points and shot 11 for 21 from the field in the game. She hit two shots from beyond the arc against Regis University (RU).
Graduate student forward Kelsey Siemons recorded her fourth double-double of the season with 17 points and 11 rebounds. She also blocked two shots in the game which moved her just two blocks away from 200 blocks in her career. Siemons is also just 33 points shy of 1,000 career points.
“I know we need a rebounder; we need that role and it helps when we have a couple of them. It recently clicked for me just to go get the ball instead of the ball is here, I can get it, the ball is here, I can’t. I don’t know what clicked, but I remember when it did, it was at Black Hills [State University], and I went and got one rebound and it clicked. I don’t know why it took five years, but now all of the sudden, I can go get this rebound, I can go get this rebound,” Siemons said.
Turner and redshirt junior forward Monica Brooks got the Mavericks off to a fast start as they put CMU up 7-0 with 8:15 left in the first quarter. Colorado Mesa University (CMU) was off to the races after that as they built an 11-point lead with 3:37 left in the quarter as Brooks hit a floater in the paint.
Turner and Siemons both hit a three-pointer in the final three minutes of the first quarter to help the Mavericks take a 29-12 lead.
The second quarter opened with both teams battling back-and-forth as the Mavericks held a 35-19 lead three minutes into the second quarter. Tashika Burrell hit a three-pointer and made a floater cutting the lead down to 14 points with 5:07 left in the first half.
The Rangers cut the lead down to 12 points, four different times in the final five minutes of the second quarter, but the Mavericks answered each time.
CMU took a 41-29 lead into the third quarter. Both teams got off to a slow start in the third quarter as Turner and graduate student guard Mariah Martin were the only players to score for either squad for the opening 4:58 minutes.
Siemons and Turner caught fire in the final five minutes of the third quarter as they combined for 13-points to give CMU a 58-41 lead. The pair scored more points in the final five minutes than RU scored in the entire third quarter as they scored 12 points.
“[Siemons] is a leader, she’s been here five years and is one of our best shooters. She hits big shots for us, so when you put that with the rebounding, she cleaned up everything and had two blocked shots. She is just a solid player, she always is consistent, and we need that a little bit more from her coming down the stretch in these last few games,” Wagner said.
The Maverick’s offense didn’t let up in the final quarter of the game as they built a 20-point lead with 6:43 left in the game. Siemons hit her third and final three-pointer of the game on the next possession and Martin made a floater giving CMU their biggest lead of the game of 25-points.
The Rangers put up their best effort to get back into the game, but their final basket of the game came with 2:31 left in the game. CMU’s defense stopped everything the Rangers threw at them as they held onto their 21-point lead to win the game.
Martin finished with 18 points and dished out seven assists in the Mavericks win. She shot seven of 16 from the field and she scored 10 of her 18 points in the second half of the game.
CMU shot 49.2% from the field and 41.7% from beyond the three-point arc in the game. The Mavericks scored 46 points in the paint as they worked to get into the lane on each possession.
The Maverick’s next game is Saturday, Feb. 19 at 5:30 p.m. against the Colorado School of Mines in the final home regular-season game of the year.
