DENVER, Colo. – The Colorado Mesa women's basketball team made a valiant effort in their comeback attempt on Friday night but came up just short in a 71-66 loss to MSU Denver at the Auraria Event Center in Denver in a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action.
 
The Mavericks played without two of their top scorers in Daniella Turner and Natalie Bartle who were both nursing injuries. The duo averages over 30 points per game.
 
Colorado Mesa trailed by as many as 18 points with 6:10 left in the third quarter after a made free-throw by Allie Navarette made it 48-30 in favor of the Roadrunners.
 
The Mavericks came roaring all the way back and took the lead with 15 seconds left in the game at 66-65 after a Kylyn Rigsby made three-pointer. The Mavericks led for just 15 seconds in the game.
 
Several Mavericks had career-nights stepping up in the absence of Turner and Bartle. Savannah Domgaard, Sophie Hadad and Valentine Desreumaux all set career-highs in points. Domgaard paced the Mavericks with 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field, including 4-for-5 from beyond the arc while Desreumaux scored six points.
 
Freshman Sophie Hadad made her first career start in place of Turner finished the night with 11 points.
 
The Mavericks downfall came from committing too many fouls and from the free-throw line. They committed 26 fouls which gave the Roadrunners 36 free-throw attempts where they made 75 percent (27-for-36) of those. Colorado Mesa themselves shot just 52.2 percent from the line (12-of-23).
 
MSU Denver's Allie Navarette led all scorers with 32 points and finished the double-double with 10 rebounds. She benefitted from the Mavericks fouling problems by going 19-for-25 from the free-throw line.
 
The Mavericks will finish the road trip on Saturday with a bout against the Colorado Christian Cougars at 5pm at the CCU Events Center.