Over the weekend, the Colorado Mesa University (CMU) women’s basketball team played host to the Thanksgiving Classic, which featured teams Fort Lewis College and Wayne State College (WSC). The Mavericks were able to walk out of the weekend 1-1.
This tournament closed out the non-conference portion of CMU’s regular season schedule, and it was also the home opener for the women’s team, as they had previously competed in the Conference Crossover tournament in Rapid City, South Dakota. The team went 0-4 in the tournament, but gained valuable experience playing two teams ranked top 10 nationally.
Against WSC, CMU came out of the gate strong by winning the jump-ball, and immediately hit a three-pointer to open the game. WSC was quick to respond, and it seemed like that would be the theme of the night. After falling behind early, CMU began to find their rhythm and quickly brought themselves back to a 12-7 lead, and they took off from there.
The offense found its stride, and the defense played tight coverage all through the remainder of the first half. With both sides of the ball clicking, and CMU finding a way to manage WSU’s constant full court press, the Mavericks found themselves up 43-22 at half.
In the third quarter, a revamped WSC used full court press and a host of turnovers and fouls to gain on CMU, leaving them with a 16 point lead in the second half, while WSC clawed their way back into the lead. With just 1:56 left in the fourth quarter, WSC took the lead before finishing out the game 62-59.
“I think it was just the pressure. They picked up the pressure, they definitely made it a little bit more difficult to run things, and then the turnovers. It felt like every third play, maybe, was a turnover. We just could not get into rhythm, and then we kinda tensed up a little bit, and then we really rushed some shots in the second half,” head coach Taylor Wagner said.
Statistically, the Mavericks outplayed WSC in almost every category. They outshot them 42% to 39%, outrebounded them 42-32, and had more assists and blocks than WSC. However, the Mavericks lost the game due to turnovers, committing 23 of them, compared to WSC’s 16.
“I think the biggest thing is that you don’t want to panic and throw the ball away. I think we were just trying to get out of the trap in the first place. Once we broke the trap, we got a lot of 2-on-1’s or 3-on-2’s because we were able to break it. [But] I just don’t think we were flashing or getting open well enough, putting ourselves in a position to get trapped.” Sophomore Guard Kylie Kravig said.
Once again, CMU was down early in the first quarter, but began to hit their stride before pulling away for a lead and never looking back. Thanks to a surge of energy off the bench, led by redshirt junior Laura Gutierrez, the Mavericks powered their way to a 45-28 lead going into halftime.
Entering the second half of the game, Fort Lewis began to utilize a full court press, which managed to stump CMU just like the night before. However, Kravig and the rest of the Mavs managed to find lanes all through the press. In a turn from the previous night, CMU began to find a rhythm that worked against Fort Lewis’ press, and allowed the women’s team to pull together a great second half effort. The Mavericks only committed 10 turnovers in the game, and won 78-61.
“I noticed the difference in talking with each other on the court. We got backside, we got help. We were helping the helper, so that was really good,” Gutierrez said.
Freshman Olivia Reed was the most dominant Maverick of the night. The forward blocked three shots, and recorded her third double-double of the season scoring 17 points and pulling down 10 rebounds.
“I feel like we definitely picked it up. We’ve improved with each game, in terms of being more consistent throughout the game. From the start we’ve usually had one or two good quarters, and I feel like, as we’ve gone, it’s gotten more to like three quarters. It still needs to get better, but it’s improving,” Freshman Forward Olivia Reed said.
CMU finished their non-conference part of the schedule with a 1-5 record. The Mavericks begin conference play next weekend at Brownson Arena with a matchup against the Colorado School of Mines Women’s team (4-1) at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 2.