PUEBLO, Colo. – It wasn't easy, but the Colorado Mesa men's basketball team escaped Pueblo with a win 98-91 over the CSU-Pueblo ThunderWolves in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action at Massari Arena.
 
The win moves the Mavericks to 11-4 on the season and 6-3 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The win total matches last year's mark at the halfway point of the season.
 
Senior Connor Nichols scored a game-high 33 points on 12-of-19 shooting from the field to lead Colorado Mesa. He added eight rebounds before fouling out in the waning seconds of the game.
 
CSU-Pueblo was red hot from the outside all game long, making 16 three-pointers at a 48 percent clip. The ThunderWolves had just 20 points in the paint and just 10 points off of the Mavericks 11 turnovers.
 
The Mavericks scored 56 of their 98 points in the paint and shot 52 percent (35-of-67) from the field. They forced 18 Pack turnovers and scored 28 points off of those turnovers.  
 
Colorado Mesa trailed by 14 points at the 6:57 mark of the first half but went on a 16-3 run to close out the final 3:06, that included a 14-0 run in the final 2:23, to take a 44-43 lead at halftime. Nichols led all scorers at the break with 19 points.
 
Tommy Nuno added 22 points while Damon Dubots scored 18 points to round out the Mavericks in double-digits. Michael Skinner pulled down a game and season-high 11 rebounds.
 
Colorado Mesa will be on the road for the second straight weekend when they travel to Adams State and Fort Lewis. The Grizzlies entered Saturday's game with a 4-4 mark in the conference while Fort Lewis entered with a 2-6 conference mark.