by Bryce Reedy
On Tuesday, Nov. 29, the CMU men’s basketball team opened up conference play with a 76-75 loss against the Western State Mountaineers. The win came courtesy of a half-court heave by Western State guard Will Duggan with four seconds remaining in the game to stun the Mavericks.
“Speechless,” guard CJ Davis said. “[…] We had the lead at half, so everything had to go right for them in the last two minutes to win that game. I guess they are luckier than us; I don’t think they are better than us.”
The Mavericks entered the game on Tuesday with a 1-5 record on the season and were on the wrong end of a three-game losing streak. The team looked to have found its rhythm in the first half of the matchup as the team entered halftime with a 39-29 lead.
However, in the second half, the team struggled to hold off the Mountaineers’ offensive comeback being outscored 47-36 in half. The first lead of the night for Western State came with just four seconds remaining on the half court heave by Duggan.
“It was tough,” head coach Andy Shantz said. “[…] It seems like a bad dream when it goes in that is for sure.”
Free throws down the stretch proved to be crucial in the outcome as the Mavericks missed three in the final five minutes.
“We have to be tough enough to step up and hit free throws,” Shantz said. “That has probably cost us three games this year.”
The Maverick bench was a bright spot in the matchup as they combined for 44 of the team’s 75 points in the contest. They were led by guard Connor Nichols who tallied 20 points on the night, to lead all Maverick scorers, on 9-13 shooting from the field. This was Nichols highest-scoring output of the season, as the guard was averaging a mere 8.33 points per game entering Tuesday.
“I didn’t try to do anything different, I just let the game come to me,” Nichols said.
The loss gave the Mavericks their fourth in a row and sixth in the early part of the season. Last year, the Mavericks didn’t lose their sixth game until Jan. 9.
“Just stay positive,” Davis said when asked about how the team is going to end their losing skid. “Just keep going at it. Keep working. I think that the results will come with the hard work. I am not worried.”
CMU played their second RMAC game against Westminster College on Saturday, and the team was unable to put an end to their winless streak. A slow first half in which the Mavericks were outscored 44-23 would be their downfall as the Griffins came away with the 89-68 victory.
Guard Eimer Lopez was the only starter in double figures with 23 points on the night. The other four Maverick starters however combined for a mere 15 points on the night. CMU as a team shot 35 percent from the field, 28 percent from behind the three point line and 68 percent from the free throw line.
With the loss CMU moved to 1-7 on the season and 0-2 in the conference. They will come home this weekend for two games against Fort Lewis and Adams State on Friday and Saturday. Tip off is set for 7:30 p.m. in Brownson arena.
