GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The Colorado Mesa men's basketball team opened the season on Friday night with a 100-92 overtime loss to St. Edward's in Brownson Arena as part of the D2 Conference Challenge presented by the DoubleTree Hotel.
 
The Mavericks fell behind in the early moments of the game as the Hilltoppers hit four threes in the first five minutes of the matchup. They trailed by as many as 17 points on two separate occasions in the first half of action.
 
As the second half of action began, here came the Mavericks.
 
Colorado Mesa trimmed the lead to nine with 18:32 to play in the game but St. Edward's answered with a run of their own to get the lead back to 14.
 
After battling the whole second half, the Mavericks were able to whittle the lead down and tied it at 73-73 on a nice little dunk by junior Damon Dubots.
 
Colorado Mesa led by three with 35 seconds left. The Hilltoppers missed a three-pointer by Sean Phillips and the rebound was tipped out beyond the three-point line where Landon Goesling corralled itput up a prayer but was fouled on the play for three free-throws. He nailed all of them.
 
A pair of three-point attempts by the Mavericks didn't fall so we headed to overtime.
 
St. Edward's scored 21 points in the extra period and limited the Mavericks to just 13 points to secure the win.
 
Junior Connor Nichols finished with a game-high 27 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field. He finished one rebounds shy of a double-double with nine and handed out five assists.
 
Emilio Acedo added 16 points and four rebounds in his Maverick debut. CJ Davis added 12 as did Damon Dubots. Brandon Hoffer had 11 points round out the Colorado Mesa players in double figures.
 
The dagger for Colorado Mesa was its 15 turnovers which the Hilltoppers converted 19 points.
 
The Mavericks shot 47.1 percent (33-of-70) from the field and 40 percent (8-of-20) from beyond the three-point line.
 
St. Edward's Landon Goesling finished with 25 points.
 
Colorado Mesa will wrap up the D2 Conference Challenge with a game tomorrow night at 7pm against Dallas Baptist. The Patriots were winners over Colorado Christian in the early game.