After losing a close matchup to Western State last weekend, The CMU men’s basketball team (9-8, 7-6 RMAC) looked to rebound against no. 12 Colorado Mines and Colorado Christian. The Mavs split the weekend series, losing 66-48 at Mines and pulling off a 70-68 victory against CCU.

On Friday, the Mavs travelled to Golden to face off against Mines. After a strong first quarter of play, the Orediggers started to pull away. Mesa kept the game within four to five points but ended the half down 11 points, 31-20. In the second half, Mines added to their lead and didn’t slow down. CMU struggled to produce offense, and fell 66-48.

Michael Bear lead the Mavs with 17 points and four blocks. Junior Jeff Hart also added seven points.

On Saturday, the Mavs looked to bounce back against a Colorado Christian team sitting at the bottom of the RMAC. Everything seemed to be clicking for CMU Saturday night as the Mavs went on to win 70-68 in front of a crowd of over 500 spectators.

Both teams exchanged buckets for most of the game, and no team took a lead larger than five points. With the game tied going into the final 10 seconds, sophomore Kevin Screen went to the line and sank both free throws to give the Mavs the late lead. CCU couldn’t put a shot up as time expired. Mesa ahd an advantage in bench points, points in paint, and second chance points. Colton Burgon scored 19 points off the bench for the Mavs and registered six rebounds. Other notable high scorers for the Mavs were Mike Melillo who had 11 points, three assists and seven rebounds. Shawn King had 10 points and three rebounds.

After the split weekend CMU improves to 9-8 with a 7-6 record in the RMAC. They have lost five of their last seven games, losing three of those games by three points or less. The Mavs will return to Brownson next weekend for two tough matchups against Regis University and No. 5 Metro State.