Natalie Bartle continues to be a scoring machine off the bench, especially in the last two games.

Bartle scored 22 points for the Colorado Mesa University women’s basketball team in their 78-53 win on Friday night against Fort Lewis.

This was Bartle’s second consecutive game with 20 or more points as the true freshman came into Saturday after a career-high 25-point performance against Regis last week. Against Fort Lewis, Bartle came off the bench to be a key factor yet again as she shot 66.7 percent from the field and knocked down five three-pointers.

“She comes in and she’s ready to go,” Head Coach Taylor Wagner told 1340 The Team. “The good thing with her is that she can score anywhere. It’s not just three-pointers, she gets to the rim, she’s got [a] nice little pull-up, she’s great at the free-throws…As we struggle a little bit offensively, she’s kinda given us a boost the last couple of games.”   

CMU had a comfortable lead in the first half as the offense was nothing short of automatic as the Mavericks made 45 percent of their shots allowing them to maintain a comfortable 35-28 lead heading into halftime.

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Kelsey Siemons was the star of the first half putting up 11 points and grabbing three boards. She would go on to finish the day by adding a block and a steal. Siemons was one of four Mavericks who managed to score in double digits.

Sydni Brandon made her presence felt on the court, like always, when the Grand Junction native grabbed nine boards, had nine assists and racked up 10 points. Jayln Duran also had ten points which she scored all of them in the second half.

The third quarter for the CMU was when the game got out of hand. The Mavericks would hold the Skyhawks to only 10 points while scoring 25 of their own. This is where Head Coach Taylor Wagner felt comfortable enough to put in the bench. Bartle would score 13 points while six other CMU bench players would score to some degree.

“We need it and they’re stepping up,” Wagner said, “Not only do we need the scoring but the defense and I thought they had a phenomenal defense in that [third] quarter.” 

The Mavericks would go on to win 78-53 and is their biggest point margin in a win since a 29-point victory against New Mexico Highlands back on Jan. 11.

CMU continues to stay in control of the top stop in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) as they look to host the RMAC Tournament which starts on March 5. CMU has two more regular season games against Adams State on Saturday and the last game of the regular season will be at Brownson against Western State on March 1.