This past week, the Colorado Mesa University (CMU) women’s basketball team went through the last two games of their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) schedule. They played host to Westminster College on Wednesday night, and traveled to Gunnison to play Western Colorado University (WCU) on Thursday.
Coming into Wednesday night hot off their win over Colorado State University, Pueblo (CSU-P), the Griffins snapped the women’s five game win streak, as they lost 49-62 in their last regular season home game. They bounced back on Thursday night, beating WCU 59-48.
The Maverick women ended their regular season 13-15, and 12-10 in conference play, earning them the seventh seed in the upcoming RMAC tournament.
At the start of the game on Wednesday night, CMU got off to a slow start, missing their first three shots. Westminster took the opportunity to pull ahead to an early 6-2 lead, and CMU could not catch up after that.
Just under halfway through the second quarter, Freshman Olivia Reed hit a layup off of an assist from Sophomore Leah Redding, which kicked off a comeback attempt. Between the second and third quarters, Mesa went on a 8-2 run, which closed Westminster’s lead down to just four points, the smallest it would get all night.
Westminster broke Mesa’s scoring run, and continued to own their lead, closing out the game 49-62.
The next night, in Gunnison, the Mavs rebounded and opened up strong against WCU, pulling away for an early 7-2 lead. WCU did their best to get back into the game, but CMU controlled the score all night.
The women demonstrated exactly what made them so difficult to beat in February, controlling both sides of the ball and forcing eight turnovers for nine points, and outrebounding Western 31-9 on the defensive side of the ball.
Reed ended the season with yet another double-double, making it her 13th in just 28 games. She scored 11, going 5-6 from the floor. The forward also grabbed 14 rebounds, 11 of them on the defensive glass, which was more than the whole Western team. In addition to her dominance on the glass, Reed also set career highs with five assists and four blocks.
Senior Monica Brooks nearly had a double herself, scoring 11 and grabbing nine boards. Junior Laura Gutierrez also had a big game, adding 15 points while shooting 3-6 from the floor, 2-4 from outside the arc, and a career high 7-7 from the free throw line.
Following their games, CMU owned the seventh seed in the RMAC tournament and had to wait to see the outcomes of the CSU-P game against the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs game on Friday night.
With the weekend games having gone, CMU advances into the RMAC tournament quarter-finals and is scheduled for a rematch against the Colorado School of Mines on Tuesday at 5:30 in Golden.
