On a night where, the Colorado Mesa University women’s basketball team needed to shoot their best, the team shot their season worst.
The Mavs fell to the University of Colorado Colorado Springs Cougars, 63-51, in the RMAC Semifinals. The team shot a season low 25 percent.
On Friday, the team traveled to Pueblo to play against UCCS.The game began with neither team able to find their shot.
UCCS was able to score the first basket of the game around the 7:29 minute mark. CMU found their basket over a minute later at the 6:17 mark.
Both teams did not reach the double digit mark in the first quarter, but the Cougars had a 9-7 lead at the end of the quarter.
The Mavs took their only lead early in the second quarter. The team went on a 7-0 run to take a 14-11. However, the Cougars took back the lead for good at 19-16 midway through the second quarter.
At halftime, CMU was down, 31-25.
In the second half, the Cougars increased their lead to double digits and the Mavs could not recover. UCCS led as many as 16 in the fourth quarter before winning by 12 points.
Guard Erin Reichle led CMU in scoring and rebounding with 17 points and eight rebounds. Guard Nicole Archambeau added nine points and five rebounds. The Cougars’ Jen Vigil had a game-high 18 points.
Before Friday, the Mavs faced off against the Colorado School of Mines Orediggers on Tuesday in the RMAC Shootout Quarterfinal. After seeing her team down 9-0 and 16-3 early in the first quarter, Reichle kept telling herself, “We can do this. We can do this.”
She was right because her team pulled away from the Orediggers midway through the second quarter.
“I knew we could do it,” Reichle said. “We came back in the second quarter and just played big.”
Big can also be used to describe the play of freshmen Kim Childress and Tori Catlett, who helped start the Mavs run late in the first quarter and into the second quarter.
“I think we brought the energy,” Catlett said. “We came out flat and that’s why they got that early lead. We brought the hustle plays and the girls fed off of it and everything started to flow.”
That energy Childress and Catlett brought was the 16-2 run that helped the team take a 22-18 lead. The Orediggers tried to keep up with the Mavs, but the Mavs’ defense only allowed seven Mines points in the second quarter. At halftime, CMU had a double digit lead, 35-25.
The Mavs increased their lead during the third quarter. The team was leading as much as 17 before going into the fourth quarter with a 50-41 lead.
The Orediggers were able to cut the lead to six points after an and-1 opportunity early in the fourth quarter. However, the Mavs found some breathing room midway through the fourth quarter after a 12-0 run to increase the lead, 67-48.
The 19 point lead was not safe though as the Orediggers cut the lead to seven with 21 seconds to go. However, the Mavs pulled away thanks to free throws from guard Sydney Small and Reichle. The Mavs won the game, 73-63.
Reichle had a team-high 21 points to go along with five assists. Guard Bryanna Adams had 15 points. Orediggers’ Emily Bailey had a game-high 23 points.
CMU finishes the regular season with a 21-7 record.
