LAKEWOOD, Colo. – St. Edward's Ashton Spears banked in a near half-court shot at the buzzer to give the 20^th-ranked Hilltoppers a 79-76 win over Colorado Mesa in the season opener for both teams at the D2 Conference Challenge event in the CCU Events Center.
 
The Mavericks (0-1) started the game off slow, committing 13 first half turnovers and fell behind by as many as 17 points with 9:29 left in the half. Despite the turnovers, the Mavericks cut into the Hilltopper lead and trailed by just eight at the break.
 
Colorado Mesa continued to chip away and took just their second lead of the game with 13:20 left in the second half after an and-1 conversion from Tommy Nuno. The two teams continued to trade the lead in the waning minutes of the game.
 
Nuno gave the Mavericks a two point advantage with 53 second left in the game after hitting on a pair of free throws. The senior would finish with 20 points and six rebounds.
 
St. Edward's (1-0) would go down and tie the game on a Spear's field goal in the paint and got a stop on the defensive end to lead to Spears' heroics.
 
Spears' game-winner was three of his game-high 28 points on 11-of-19 shooting from the field.
 
Maverick senior Michael Skinner finished with a team-high 23 points and eight rebounds. Skinner converted 10-of-11 from the free throw line and made his lone three-point attempt.
 
Newcomer Georgie Dancer was the only other Maverick in double figures with ten.
 
The Mavericks shot 43.1 percent (22-of-51) from the field and 87.1 percent from the free-throw line. They outrebounded the Hilltoppers 42-28 and had a 16-9 advantage in second chance points.
 
CMU fell to 0-6 all-time against St. Edward's with all the matchups coming in the D2 Conference Challenge.
 
Colorado Mesa will be back in action at the D2 Conference Challenge event tomorrow morning at 11am against DBU. The Patriots played Colorado Christian and earned a 78-66 win over the Cougars.