The Mavericks advance to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament Semifinals with a 77-65 win over the Roadrunners in the quarterfinals.
Redshirt freshman guard Blaise Threatt led the Mavericks in scoring with 20 points and nearly had a double-double as he pulled down nine rebounds. He shot 8-13 from the field and made one shot from beyond the three-point arc to help the Mavericks advance.
“I feel like we were both playing to our strengths. I don’t think there is a person in the world who can stay in front of Blaise [Threatt] especially if he’s got a head of steam and when they find me, I’ve just got to knock them down. It’s as simple as that,” Small said.
Colorado Mesa University (CMU) shot 47.1% from the field and 31% from behind the three-point arc. The Mavericks finished with nine assists and eight turnovers in the game.
The Mavericks held the Roadrunners to 40.7% from the field and 27.8% from the field as they flipped the script from their previous two matchups.
CMU jumped out to an 8-2 with 16:59 left in the first half as they hit two shots from behind the arc and hit two shots at the free-throw line. Metro State University-Denver (MSUD) closed the game down to three points just under two minutes later.
Redshirt freshman guard Mac Riniker lifted CMU’s lead up to 14-7 as he stole the ball from Keiren Brown, raced out in transition and threw down a fastbreak dunk. The Roadrunners again cut the lead down to three points as Ra’Shawn Langston hit a floater in the paint with 10:21 left in the first half.
Tyrei Randall hit his lone three-pointer of the game to tie the game at 16 less than a minute later. Both teams traded the lead back-and-forth as neither team could build a lead larger than three points until Miles Gibson gave MSUD a 30-25 lead with 1:21 left in the first half.
Redshirt senior guard Georgie Dancer cut the lead back down to two points as he buried a three-pointer. Langston carved into the paint to finish at the rim to give MSUD a four-point lead, but Threatt made a circus shot to end the half.
Threatt got an offensive rebound in the air and before he hit the ground, he put the shot up and made it without touching the floor with one second left in the first half.
“We got a video last night in our group chat as a team and [Randall] took a video and posted it on his Snapchat story, ‘oh this is my house, I own [Colorado] Mesa.’ I did not take that lightly, I watched that video probably five or six times and was like wow. I didn’t say anything to him because I wanted to be a bigger person and Trevor [Baskin] wanted to dunk at the end of the game to put it on them. We didn’t take it lightly and I think it added motivation. It helped me add motivation to the game,” Threatt said.
CMU opened the second half on a 12 to two-run to take a 42-34 lead as redshirt freshman Trevor Baskin threw down a dunk. The Roadrunners and Langston answered with a run of their own as they tied the game at 42 with 15:12 left in the game.
The lead bounces back-and-forth twice before Keyshaad Dixon hit a three-pointer with 12:30 left in the game to give MSUD a 50-47 lead. The Mavericks answered each time the Roadrunners scored as MSUD couldn’t build a lead bigger than three points and Baskin tied the game at 53 three minutes later.
Redshirt freshman forward Michael McCurry and Dancer gave CMU a five-point lead as Dancer hit a three-pointer and McCurry made both shots at the free-throw line. Redshirt senior guard Jared Small gave the Mavericks a nine-point lead as he buried a shot from beyond the arc with 4:25 left in the game.
Dixon answered as he carved into the paint to finish through contact, and he went to the free-throw line to complete the three-point play.
CMU lifted their lead back up to double-digits as Baskin threw down another dunk with 1:50 left in the game to give the Mavericks a 70-59 lead. Threatt gave the Mavericks a 12-point lead as he went 1-2 from the free-throw line.
In the final minute and a half of the game, the Roadrunners were looking to score quickly and foul to try to extend the game. The Mavericks went 7-10 from the free-throw line to close the game out and pull out the 12-point victory to beat MSUD.
Small was the Maverick’s second-leading scorer with 19 points and he shot 5-11 from the field. He made three shots from beyond the three-point arc and went 6-8 from the free-throw line. Small pulled down four rebounds and dished out four assists in the game.
“I felt some type of way about how they celebrated the last game, so I had a little extra motivation for this game,” Small said.
CMU scored 26 points in the paint and the Mavericks scored 23 points off turnovers. The game was tied 11 times and the lead changed six different times in the game.
The Maverick’s next game is Friday, March 4 at 5:00 p.m. against Regis University in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament Semifinals in Spearfish, S.D.
