Dallas, Texas – Colorado Mesa opened the D2 Conference Challenge against No. 19 Dallas Baptist, falling to the Patriots – 63-56, Friday night in Burg Center.

The hosts finished at a 39.7 shooting clip, the Mavericks at 36% for the game sinking five less shots from the field. Colorado Mesa would pull down 39 rebounds to the Patriots 27, but committed 26 turnovers, which led to significant point conversions on the opposite end by DBU.

30 of the Mavs total points came from the bench, and thanks to eight offensive rebounds they put back 13-second chance points. Blaise Threatt led the team's scoring with 12-points and pulled down four rebounds. Trevor Baskin handled the defensive efforts, contributing 11 boards and two blocks, to go along with eight points.

William Heather was the go-to on the night for DBU leading all scorers with 21 points.

DBU opened on an 8-0 run before CMU answered with eight unanswered points of their own to take a 9-8 lead. The teams would trade points, for most of the half before the Mavs closed out the opening period on a 6-0 run for a 32-26 edge.

The first 10 minutes of the second saw CMU maintain their lead, before turnovers and cold shooting plagued them and gave way to DBU taking over.

The Mavs would stay within single digits, but could not recover. Baskin capped off the scoring with a steal and a statement dunk with seconds remaining.