The early portion of the season continues to look bright for the Colorado Mesa University women’s basketball team as the Mavericks traveled down to Gunnison, Colo to defeat Western State 53-41.

CMU, who won three out of their first four games of the season, was able to start conference play on a high note against Western on Saturday.

The Mavericks started the game with a 10-0 run but would then cool off as the Mountaineers came back to take the lead for the remainder of the first half. Leading scorer Jaylyn Duran was held to zero points in the first half as the rest of the team shot only 23 percent from the field.

Western State would go into halftime leading 24-23 but the third quarter saw the tables turn in favor of CMU.

Duran would finally find the net as the senior guard would give the Mavericks the lead for the first time since the first quarter. In the second half, Duran would come back from her scoreless first half and rack up 14 points. The points by Duran was a game-high while teammates Karina Brandon and Kylyn Rigsby would both score 12. Brandon would also grab 11 rebounds to complete her double-double.

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CMU would outscore the Mountaineers 22-6 in the third quarter and control the game from there on.

Shooting 52.94 percent in the second half was a huge improvement from the slow first half the Mavericks had. It would help them fight off a scoring attack by the Mountaineers in the fourth quarter and eventually seal the 53-41 victory.

CMU’s defense played a big part in the victory due to allowing Western State to shoot only 26.09 percent from the field in the second half as well as missing 67 percent of their free throws throughout the night.

With the victory, the Mavericks improve to 4-1 on the year and will return home for a two-game stand against UCCS and Colorado School of Mines from Dec. 7-8. Last year, CMU defeated both the Mountain Lions and the Orediggers in their regular season contests.