A big-time team and big-time players doing big-time things.
The Colorado Mesa University women’s basketball found themselves on the top of the ladder Saturday night cutting down the net after defeating Westminster College 67-50 to capture the Under Armour/RMAC Tournament Championship title.
Jaylyn Duran showed why she was the RMAC Player of the Year and Sydni Brandon got her Sportscenter deserving highlight to match her RMAC Tournament MVP title. Duran and Brandon made the All-RMAC Tournament team with teammates Kylyn Rigbsy and Kelsey Siemons.
Duran led the Mavericks in scoring against the Griffins, scoring 27 points and racking up three assists and three steals.
“Just a phenomenal game,” Head coach Taylor Wagner said. “We’re just excited that we were able to play on our home floor and protect our court. [I’m] just proud of our team and the seniors and it’s a good way to send them off.”
This is Wagner’s third RMAC Tournament title since his hiring back in 2012. For CMU, it is their fourth overall tournament championship win.
Brandon scored 13 points while grabbing six boards and dishing out six assists. In her MVP performance throughout the three-game tournament, the Grand Junction native averaged 14.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and 4.6 assists.
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The first half was highlighted by Jaylyn Duran getting the Mavericks ahead early. The senior guard scored 16 points and shot 77.8 percent of the field. CMU, as a team, shot 40 percent from the field of play and controlled the first half by going into the locker room with a 29-21 lead.
Coming out into the second half, the Mavericks had a higher sense of confidence about themselves. The 1,000 plus fans in attendance made sure the home team continued to be hot and stay hot going into the third quarter. CMU would do just that shooting 63.6 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from beyond the arc in the second half.
“It really helps,” Duran said about the Brownson crowd. “It brings our energy up ten times more. They’re a big part of our game.”
Sydni Brandon was a perfect 3-3 from three-point range in the second half, including her buzzer beater lob to end the third quarter.
“When I threw it, I always think from back there, ‘That’s not going in,’ and oh my gosh it was straight on and it went it,” Brandon said. “Everybody was jumping up and down like what is going on? It was crazy.”
After the miracle three, the Mavericks seemed as if they knew what the end result was going to be. They had the 12-point lead going into the fourth quarter and all it took was a couple more three’s from Brandon, Duran and Siemons before the clock read triple zero.
Only the starting five for theMavericks scored on Saturday. Kylyn Rigbsy was the only other player besides Sydni Brandon and Duran to score in double digits as the DeBeque native dished out 13 points, nine rebounds and five assists. Siemons scored six and had four crucial blocks while Karina Brandon had six points, five boards and five assists.
The 17-points win is the biggest deficit win for CMU in the tournament.
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“I thought it was closer the whole time,” Wagner said. “It wasn’t until the last minute or two that I felt like we had it.”
The Mavericks now await where their placement will be for the NCAA Division II Regionals which will take place. CMU is one of the 24 conference champions who earned an automatic bid into the bracket while the NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Committee will select the remaining 40 at-large bids.
Angelo State won the Lone Star Conference Championship on Saturday while Newman and Lubbock Christian University will play for the Heartland Conference Tournament title on Sunday.
The LSC and the Heartland Conference are the two other conferences in the South Central Region with the RMAC.