Despite to slipping to No. 4 in the nation after a loss to Ft. Lewis, the Mavericks won the first round of the RMAC Shootout Tuesday night with a 70-57 win against UC-Colorado Springs.

The loss to Ft. Lewis on Saturday featured two twenty-point games from Aubry Boehme and Sharaya Selsor, while the Mavs’ win on Tuesday featured a more diverse scoring stat sheet with four players scoring in double figures.

Christen Lopez showed up everywhere on the stat line with 14 points, a game high four steals and five assists.

“She shows great leadership, a great job tonight,” Coach Taylor Wagner said. “She might be the best point guard in the conference and we needed that tonight.”

With the help of Hannah Pollart’s 12 points, Lopez and Beohme countered an uncharacteristic night on offense for Selsor. She led all scorers with 18, but was just 6-20 from the field. She did, however, make the play of the game with 2:45 left when CMU was looking for the kill shot to move them onto the second round. Running off a Boehme screen from the post, Selsor took a pass from Lopez for a catch-and-shoot at the top of the arc.

Selsor made the shot and a loose ball foul on the Cougar’s Kellie Krueger sent Pollart to the line for two free throws. She made both and the Mavs scored five points in a three second span. With seven minutes left UCCS got within three points, 50-47, but was the closest it would be for the rest of the game. Mesa played suffocating defense, allowing just five points the rest of the game.

“Our girls really stepped it up on defense the last five minutes,” Wagner said. “It helped us hit some easy shots, get to the free throw line, and we made a nice run there in the end.”

The Maverick defense was especially frustrating for UCCS’ Abby Kirchoff. She was the leading scorer for UCCS with just over 21 points per game. Selsor matched up with Kirchoff defensively, and helped limit Kirchoff to 19 percent shooting and 12 points.

“Sharaya was physical and we wanted to make her take bad shots where you flip a coin if it goes in or not,” Wagner said. “Sharaya was big in making sure she didn’t get very many open looks.”

The Mavericks’ win in front of 1200 fans lifted them to 26-1 and will host the rest of the RMAC Tournament at Brownson Arena this weekend. The Mavericks will be on the tail end of a double-header Friday night at 7:30 against Regis. Mesa won the first matchup against the Rangers this season in Denver, 87-67.

brjthomp@mavs.coloradomesa.edu