Although it was Senior Night at Brownson Arena on Saturday, the men’s basketball team was focused on beating the Mountaineers of Western State and securing a spot in the RMAC tournament. With a 74- 83 loss to Western State a month ago, the Mavericks avenged the loss with an 85-63 victory.

“Defensively it was being more aggressive,” Coach Andy Shantz said. “In that game in Gunnison, I felt like they were the actors and we were the reactors.”

The Mavericks held the lead for the entire game, but it wasn’t always as comfortable as they would have liked, and poor three-point shooting had a lot to do with that. Mesa was dismal in the first half from three, shooting 1-8 while Western shot 4-7. Jordan Adams, the leading scorer for the Mountaineers, had an early 13 points.

“Adams is just a heck of a player,” Shantz said. “The shots he was hitting were tough pull ups with a hand in front of him. But when you’re talented, you can hit those, and he can keep his team in it when we’re doing a good job on everyone else.”

The Mavericks defense forced turnovers, turning eight of them in the first half into 10 points to supplement for the lack of perimeter success. At the end of the game, Western had just two points off turnovers compared to Mesa’s 17.

The Mavs dominated the game in the paint by 20 points the first half and by 30 points in the game. Joe Kiely helped set the tempo in the first half with 11 of his 13 coming before the break. Kiely was one of six Mavericks to score in double figures.

“This is a real unselfish group. I never think about worrying one of our guys is just thinking about his own stats,” Shantz said. The Mavericks went into the locker room leading 36-29.

Almost three minutes into the second period, the Mavericks started to push away. Started by Mike Melillo and Jerry Duckworth, Mesa hit their next three shots from deep. Clay Kame hit a three on the tail end of the streak to put the Mavs ahead by 10 and in control for the rest of the game. Kame’s presence was felt beyond the court as cut-outs of his face littered The Herd and an eight-foot cut-out stood behind the Mavette’s.

“It’s actually Peyton Manning underneath,” said Kame, whose roommate was able to bring it home from work. Josh King held the on-looking cutout whenever the real Kame was on the court. “We’ve known him since high school,” King said. “We wanted him to stand out on senior night.”

The win clinched a spot in the RMAC tournament for Mesa, and if they can get wins on the road against Adams State and Fort Lewis, they could host the opening round. “If you asked me a month ago about where we were, I didn’t know because we were struggling a little bit,” Shantz said. “But it’s a testament to the character of guys we have on this team.”

brjthomp@mavs.coloradomesa.edu