GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Sophomore
Kolton Peterson drained a three-pointer with 1:44 to play to help give Colorado Mesa a 69-66 win over the defending NAIA National Champion Graceland Yellowjackets on Friday evening in Brownson Arena in the first night of the Holiday Inn Thanksgiving Classic.
Peterson finished with nine points on 3-of-8 shooting from beyond the three-point line. The Lakewood native played over 24 crucial minutes in the game down the stretch.
Colorado Mesa led for over 34 minutes in the game but their largest lead came at the 15:53 mark of the first half when they went up 12-2 after a
Damon Dubots runner in the paint. They never led by more than eight points the rest of the night.
Despite having the lead for a majority of the night, the Yellowjackets had a lead from the 8:47 mark of the second half until the 6:48 mark and had the game tied at 63-63 with 3:45 to play.
The Mavericks high percentage shooting continued as they finished shooting 51.1 percent from the field but shot a lower percentage from three at 35.3 percent. Graceland shot 46.7 percent from the field and 40.9 percent from three. They only attempted one free-throw in the game that came on an and one with 1:28 to play in the game to cut the Maverick lead to one at 67-66.
Senior
Connor Nichols led all scorers with 19 points, 10 of those came in the first half. Nichols shot 6-for-9 from the field (66%) including 2-for-3 from three.
Dubots was the only other Maverick in double figures as he finished with 13 points.
Senior
Brandon Hoffer finished with a game-high six assists and chipped in nine points.
The loss for Graceland was their first in 17 games that spanned all the way back to last February 17 in an 88-80 loss to Peru State.
Colorado Mesa moves their record to 4-1 on the season.
The Mavericks will take on the Fisher Falcons from Boston, Mass. tomorrow evening at 7pm to close out the Holiday Inn Thanksgiving Classic. Fisher lost 93-69 to Western Colorado in an earlier matchup in the day as a part of the Classic.
