The Mavericks win their second consecutive Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Tournament with a 75-74 victory over the Orediggers in overtime.
Colorado Mesa University is now 6-0 in games that have gone to overtime.
“They are just a solid team, they are really well-coached, and they aren’t going to give up. They also just play super hard. We just had to stay poised, we knew what they were going to do, so we just had to take care of the ball and take care of business,” sophomore forward Ethan Menzies said.
Menzies scored a game-high 23 points along with seven rebounds and three blocks. Menzies was named the RMAC Tournament MVP.
Senior guards Georgie Dancer and Jared Small combined for 31 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. The pair also combined for three blocks in the game, and Small went a perfect three for three from beyond the arc.
Dancer and Small were both named to the RMAC All-Tournament Team.
Menzies opened the overtime period as he got into the paint to convert a layup on the first possession of the game. Dancer extended the Mavericks lead to four points as he got through traffic to convert a layup.
The Orediggers were able to tie the game behind Kobi Betts and Titus Reed’s baskets. Small got to the free-throw line and made both with 1:20 left in the game to give the Mavericks a two-point lead.
With 57 seconds left in the game, Reed got to the free-throw line, but he went one of two which left a one-point deficit for the Orediggers.
Reed grabbed a rebound with nine seconds left in the overtime period off freshman guard Christopher Speller’s missed layup. The Orediggers called a timeout immediately after Reed’s rebound.
Betts raced down the floor after the timeout to get a shot off in the closing seconds of the game. Betts stepped back to separate from Dancer, and he got a shot off before the buzzer.
“[Betts] was going to that step back shot every time and I blocked when he tried to hit it in regulation for the game-winner. So, I knew he was going to go right back to it, so it was just a matter of it he hit it or not. It was a tough shot and luckily, he didn’t hit it,” Dancer said.
Betts shot hit the back of the rim and bounced out and Small grabbed a rebound to win the Mavericks the game. Betts finished the game with 20 points through 41 minutes of play.
CMU came out of halftime with an eight-point lead, but Michael Glen got the Orediggers on the board first in the half. Menzies was quick to get the lead back to eight-points,
Brendan Sullivan hit a three on the next trip down the floor in freshman forward Trevor Baskin’s face, but Baskin fouled Sullivan on the way down. Sullivan converted the four-point play at the free-throw line with 18:01 left in the half.
Betts hit a three-pointer 15:06 left in the second half to give Colorado School of Mines (CSM) some momentum. The Orediggers took their first lead of the second half as Betts got into the paint to finish a layup through traffic.
Small gave CMU the lead back as he got into the paint and hit a jumper through traffic. Dancer extended the Mavericks lead to four points as he hit a three over an Oredigger defender that was closing out.
CSM scored six straight points to take a two-point lead with 9:29 left in the second half.
The back-and-forth nature of the game continued until the Orediggers built a six-point lead with 4:36 left in the second half. Speller got the Mavericks within two points as he got into the paint two possessions in a row to convert a layup.
Both teams traded a basket before Sullivan pushed the Orediggers lead back to five points with a three-point play. Dancer got to the free-throw line and made both to cut the lead back down to three-points with 1:32 left in the half.
With 26 seconds left, Small pulled up from three with a defender in his face and drilled it to tie the game up at 69.
“I just knew we needed a three. I was thinking that we could get a two, foul and then get it back. In my head, I was like let’s just tie this thing up, and get it into overtime or at least get a chance to win the game,” Small said.
The Mavericks built a 38-30 lead in the first half behind their veteran players, and their bench. CMU’s bench scored 14 points in the first half.
Dancer, Small and Menzies combined for 25 points, and Dancer had four assists in the half as well.
CMU shot 60.9% from the floor, and they were six of nine from behind the arc in the first half.
The Mavericks finished the game with 16 assists as their ball movement was key in their victory.
“It’s just been a point of emphasis, we’ve just been able to show them lots of clips of when we play with pace, better things happen for us. We are just getting more and more comfortable with that,” Head Coach Mike DeGeorge said.
“When you run a ball screen offense, it’s very difficult for guys to learn when to slow down and read the action and when to move the ball and make the extra pass. We’re just growing in that capacity and as the year has gone on, our pace and decision making has sped up,” DeGeorge said.
Redshirt freshman guard Mac Riniker was the third and final Maverick that was named to the RMAC All-Tournament Team.
The Maverick’s next game is Friday, March 12 in the NCAA Regional Tournament in Golden, Colo as CSM is set to host. The time and opponent will be determined tomorrow when the field is finalized.
