Sharaya Selsor just couldn’t take it anymore. The look of intensity turned into a giant smile. Jumping up and down embracing her teammates at mid-court, she let the entire Fieldhouse know how big this win was. The smile was one she shared with the entire Mesa State women’s basketball team after they had wrapped up a huge win against the No. 3 team in the country.
Fort Lewis came into Brownson Arena with a 20-1 conference record and the No. 3 national ranking.
The 57-51 victory was even sweeter because it was the home finale for the Maverick seniors. The rest of the team and coaching staff made sure that their seniors, Katy Brady and Jocelyn Zarling, left Brownson without disappointment.
“It feels so awesome to go out on senior night beating the No. 3 team in the nation,” senior and Grand Junction native Katie Brady said. “This is the best senior gift I could have imagined.”
Mesa State saw little go right on Friday night when they were beaten by Adams State. With a short memory and a chip placed squarely on the shoulders of Mesa State, the ladies seemed ready from tip off to answer the challenge.
Mesa started the game under control, not letting Fort Lewis’s token full court pressure
rattle them offensively.
“That’s what coach talked about coming into the game, Fort Lewis will scare you with their press and then make you jack up bad shots. We were gonna make them play defense for most if not the entire shot clock,” Brady said.
Selsor, who led the Mavericks in scoring with 14 points, got things going early, hitting two early threes. Those threes triggered the Mesa women on the defensive end of the floor. The Mavericks locked Fort Lewis down in the first half only allowing the Lady Hawks to shoot 17 percent from the field and a meager 15 first half points. Going into halftime Mesa State led 24-15.
The offense loosened up the second half for both teams. Fort Lewis clawed their way back into the game closing the gap to within one with 7:28 remaining in the game. The contest remained a one basket game until Hannah Bowden outmuscled Fort Lewis post players for a key offensive rebound and put back. The bucket and foul put Mesa up eight with 3:42 to go. The Mavericks never looked back. The buzzer sounded with Mesa winning 57-51.
“This is what makes our loss last night so frustrating. When we play like we did tonight we can beat anybody. Tonight though, we played to our potential and look what happened,” Brady said.
With the win Mesa locked up the five seed heading into tournament play. The lady Mavs will head to four seed seed Adams State Tuesday.

chughes@mesastate.edu