The Mavericks win their final game of the regular season on senior night 58-43 over the No. 21 team in the nation in the Mountaineers.
The three seniors honored for senior night were senior guards Valentine Desreumaux, Morgan Myers-Pack and Kylyn Rigsby.
Senior forward Kelsey Siemons finished with a near triple-double with 11 points, 10 rebounds and nine blocks. Siemons tied Colorado Mesa University’s (CMU) single-game block record set by Lindsay Clegg in 2001.
Rigsby scored a game-high 20 points and had two steals in the final regular-season game of her Maverick career.
“The way I describe Kylyn. Kylyn, is the complete Maverick. She does everything that a teammate would want and everything a coach would want. She’s just unbelievable, she guards, she scores and she’s a cheerleader. She loves and celebrates everyone else’s success and if I can describe Kylyn Rigsby, she is the complete Maverick,” Head Coach Taylor Wagner said.
CMU took a 9-4 lead with 7:29 left in the first quarter as redshirt sophomore guard Natalie Bartle scored five points. Both teams went on a scoring drought for the next four minutes before Siemons buried a three-pointer for the Mavericks.
The Mountaineers ended their scoring drought with 2:12 as Mikaela Parker got into the paint to convert a layup. Western Colorado University’s (WCU) Hannah Cooper maneuvered into the paint with 10 seconds left in the quarter to cut CMU’s lead to four points.
Bartle got the ball across the half-court line with about five seconds left and her sense of urgency kicked in. With three seconds left, she came off a screen to get into the paint and she drew a foul at the end of the quarter.
Bartle went to the free-throw line with zeros on the clock and buried both shots to give CMU a six-point lead.
WCU opened the second quarter on a 10 to give themselves a four-point lead with 6:34 left in the second quarter. Rigsby immediately answered with a three-pointer to cut WCU’s lead to one point.
“I’ve always been told, hand down, man down. I assessed the defense and was like I’m a shooter, but it’s always good to see the ball go through the hole to get confidence,” Rigsby said. “I knew that we were struggling our offense at first, obviously it came later but I just wanted to get us going to build some confidence for not just myself but for my team.”
The Mavericks took the lead on the next possession, but the Mountaineers were quick to tie the game up at 21.
Both teams traded shots in the final three minutes as each time either CMU or WCU scored, the other immediately answered.
CMU took a one-point lead into the third quarter and Rigsby scored the Mavericks first ten points of the second half to give them a six-point lead. Senior guard Daniella Turner extended CMU’s lead to eight points on the next possession with a made jump shot.
The Mountaineers scored nine unanswered points to take a one-point lead with 1:02 left in the third quarter. Siemons gave the Mavericks the lead back, and Turner pushed their lead to three-points as she got an offensive rebound to make a buzzer-beater layup to end the third quarter.
CMU took control of the game in the fourth quarter as they opened on a 13 to three run in the opening five minutes of the fourth quarter. Cooper cut the Mavericks’ lead down to 10 points with Cooper making two free throws with 3:51 left in the game.
The Mavericks closed the game scoring five unanswered points with senior forward Valentine Desreumaux scoring the last points of the game and her career.
Turner finished the game with 13 points, five rebounds and three steals.
“We were talking about it; we definitely don’t want them to leave. Just going back on senior night last year, we lost, and we didn’t want to take another loss on our home floor ever again. So, coming in against Western, it’s senior night, we just wanted to take pride in how well we can play basketball and that’s what we did,” Turner said.
CMU assisted 16 of their 23 made shots against the Mountaineers.
The Maverick’s next game is Tuesday, March 2 to kick off the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament.
