GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Colorado Mesa will open their home slate this weekend with the Holiday Inn Airport Thanksgiving Classic. The Mavericks will take on Missouri Western on Friday followed by a matchup with Montana Western on Saturday.
 
GIMME SOME SKIN
Senior Michael Skinner is making the most of his senior season in the early going. Skinner leads the Mavericks balanced scoring attack averaging 15.8 points per game. The Thornton native scored a career-high 23 points in the season opener and has been in double figures in three of the four games played.
 
Skinner has also been getting it done on the defensive end of the floor too. He averages 6.3 rebounds per game, which leads the team, including 4.5 rebounds per game on defense. He has added seven steals which is also a team-high.
 
SHARP SHOOTER
Junior guard Kolton Peterson has been deadly from beyond the arc in his career and this season is no different. The Lakewood, Colo. product ranks sixth nationally in three-point percentage this year at 63.2 percent (12-of-19). He made a season-high five three-pointers in the Mavericks loss to Dallas Baptist.
 
For his career, Peterson has made 77 threes at a whopping 42.5 percent clip which is currently fifth on the all-time list.
 
MAKING THEM COUNT
The Mavericks once again are shooting a high field goal percentage from the field. Colorado Mesa ranks 11^th nationally this season in field goal percentage at 53.2 percent. They shot 69.8 percent from the field this past weekend in the win over Pacific Union.
 
Last season, the Mavericks shot 51.3 percent from the field on the year with a season-high coming in the first game of the season against Dallas Baptist where they shot 66 percent from the field.
 
THE CLASSIC
Colorado Mesa is hosting the annual Holiday Inn Airport Thanksgiving Classic this weekend in Brownson Arena. The Mavericks are 8-2 in their last ten games in the tournament with the only two losses coming in the 2016 Classic against MSU Billings and No. 20 Midwestern State.
 
FUN FACT: Current Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard coached the Angelo State Rams in the Classic back in 2014. Colorado Mesa won that game 70-67. Following that season, Beard left Angelo State for Arkansas Little Rock where he helped the Trojans upset fifth-seeded Purdue 85-83 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
 
HISTORY WITH MISSOURI WESTERN
The Mavericks and the Griffins will be squaring off for the first-time in program history on Friday. They enter the weekend with a 3-3 record with wins over Minnesota State Moorhead, Missouri S&T, and Nebraska Christian College. Two of their losses came in the Small College Hall of Fame Classic to No. 9 Southern Nazarene and No. 22 Daemen College.
 
Missouri Western is led by Tyrell Carroll, a 5-11 guard from Omaha, Neb. Carroll is averaging 18.7 points per game and had a season-high 29 in the Griffins win over Missouri S&T.
 
FUN FACT: Missouri Western State built a 15.7 million dollar training facility that is home to the Kansas City Chiefs Training Camp. The facility features a 120-yard field, locker rooms, weight room, training room, classrooms, and office space.
 
HISTORY WITH MONTANA WESTERN
Montana Western and Colorado Mesa have met up three times previously with the Mavericks owning a 2-1 lead in the all-time series. The Mavericks defeated the Bulldogs 69-64 in the 2013 version of the Holiday Inn Airport Thanksgiving Classic.
 
The Bulldogs enter the weekend with a 4-3 mark on the season and are coming off a 72-70, buzzer-beating win over Corban College last weekend in the Domino's Classic in Caldwell, Idaho.
 
James Jones leads the Bulldogs in scoring, averaging 18.3 points per game and hits on over 45 percent of his three-point attempts. Jones, a 6-4 forward from Chicago, Ill., scored a season-high 24 points in the win over Yellowstone Christian.
 
November 29, 2013 – at Colorado Mesa 69, Montana Western 64
November 24, 2011 – at Colorado Mesa 93, Montana Western 76
November 25, 1978 – Montana Western 81, Colorado Mesa 74
 
FUN FACT: Montana Western was founded in 1893 as a center for training teachers. The school became part of the Montana University system in 2000.
 
COACHING STAFF
Head coach Mike DeGeorge enters his second season at the helm of the Mavericks. DeGeorge led the Mavericks to a 19-10 record in his first season, an eight-win improvement from the previous season, and included a win over nationally-ranked DBU.
 
Kyle Bossier and Dutch Johnson both return to the bench as a part of the coaching staff. Bossier is in his second season while Johnson is in his sixth season as an assistant coach.
 
New to the staff this year is former Maverick Russ Gregory and graduate assistant Sean Lynch.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
The Mavericks will head back out on the road to open Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action. They will take on UCCS on Friday (Dec. 6) followed by a matchup with Colorado School of Mines on Saturday (Dec. 7). The Mountain Lions entered this weekend 3-1 while the Orediggers sit at 2-2.