Daniella Turner owned the weekend. Simple as that.
The junior guard came through on both Friday and Saturday night with two 20-plus point games. Turner scored 24 points in the 69-40 domination of UCCS and then 29 against the Orediggers, including the game winner in the 55-53 win.
Along with Turner’s stellar scoring, the Colorado Mesa University women’s basketball team was able to sweep their first RMAC road trip because of the tyrannizing defense. Against UCCS, the CMU defense held the Mountain Lions to a 25 percent shooting effectiveness from the floor and forced 15 turnovers over the four quarters.
Senior Sydni Brandon was stellar as always getting six steals and was the only other Maverick to score in double digits. The Grand Junction native also had six rebounds which led the team. On Saturday against Mines, she added another four steals and four rebounds.
CMU handled UCCS easily winning by 29 points which is their third biggest point differential this season. In just their six wins this year, CMU has already had four 25-points or more victories.
However, the challenge against was Colorado Mines on Saturday had CMU holding their breath a little bit. The Mavericks had the 33-24 lead going into halftime but then MInes came back and outscored CMU 16-11 in the third quarter.
In the fourth, the Orediggers were down by nine with five minutes remaining in the game before going on a 11-2 run to tie the game up with under a minute left. Thankfully, the late-game heroics were found in Danielle Turner who scored inside the paint with to regain the lead for the Mavericks;
Mines would get another shot but would miss a shot inside the paint with two seconds remaining and the Mavericks would hold on for the ultimate 55-53 win.
Amazingly, Turner shot the bal twice as much as the next closest teammate. Kylyn Rigbsy took 11 shots but only scored six points. No other Maverick shot the ball more than five times from the floor against the Orediggers.
The scoring absence that has been felt this year because of Jaylyn Duran no longer being on the roster, players have been forced to step up in games. This weekend it was Turner, but Sierra McNicol and Kelsey Siemons scored in double digits in the games at Brownson over Thanksgiving weekend and Syndi Brandon continues to shine at the appropriate and necessary times on the offensive side of the ball.
Moving forward, there has to be a balance with figuring out how much Taylor Wagner wants players like Turner to shoot compared to the rest of the roster and if the shots should be evenly distributed out among the rest of the starters.
CMU will return home for Finals Week to play their first set of RMAC home games against MSU-Denver and Chadron State College from Dec.13-14. Last season, the Mavericks didn’t lose a single conference home games all season. Their only loss inside Brownson came in the NCAA Tournament against Lubbock Christian.
