The Colorado Mesa women's basketball team will resume action this weekend on the road. The Mavericks will take on the UCCS Mountain Lions on Friday (Dec. 31) at 3pm to close out the 2021. Then, they will open the 2022 year with a matchup against the New Mexico Highlands Cowgirls on Saturday (Jan. 1) at 3pm as well.
 
DYNAMIC DUO 2.0
Veterans Mariah Martin and Daniella Turner have turned out to be one of the best, if not the  best, scoring tandems in all of Division II women's basketball. Martin is the leading scorer in the RMAC averaging 18.4 points per game while Turner ranks third at 18.0 per game. Martin is coming off a weekend where she scored a career-high 33 points, earning her RMAC Offensive Player of the Week honors, in a win over Adams State while Turner averaged 22 points over the two games.
 
The duo is the top scoring duo in the RMAC as they average 36.4 points per game just ahead of the Westminster duo of Greenwood and McGinley who are at 32.3 points per game.
 
Below is how they stack up nationally:

1. Lander (Cange and Passmore) – 41.6
2. Ursuline (Cloonan and Green) – 38.9
3. Shepherd (Beeman and McLaughlin) – 37.3
4. Colorado Mesa (Martin and Turner) – 36.4

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN
Fifth-year student-athlete Daniella Turner is quickly climbing towards a major milestone. The Boca Raton, Fla. product is just 66 points shy of reaching the 1,000-point milestone of her illustrious career. If and when she reaches that milestone, she would be the first to hit the mark since 2018 when Jaylyn Duran eclipsed the threshold.
 
Turner would become the 19^th player in program history to reach the milestone.
 
DEFENSE NEVER RESTS
The Maverick defense has shown up in nearly every game this year and during their last two games that defense continued to show up. Colorado Mesa limited nationally ranked CSU Pueblo to their lowest point total of the season at 50 points.
 
They are the top scoring defense team in the RMAC limiting opponents to 52 points per game and No. 2 in field goal percent defense at 34.6 percent.
 
QUICK HITTER: OFF THE BREAK
During the tenure of head coach Taylor Wagner, the Mavericks are 13-2 coming off the NCAA mandated Holiday Break. Their lone two losses came to the same opponent, MSU Denver, in consecutive years where they only played one game coming off the break.
 
SCOUTING THE MOUNTAIN LIONS
Despite starting off the season with a 3-8 record, the UCCS Mountain Lions are a dangerous team capable of beating anyone on any given night. Four of their losses have come by five points or less including five-point losses to No. 24 CSU Pueblo and Texas A&M Kingsville.
 
Jasmine Jeffcoat enters the week as one of the top bigs in the conference. The 6-2 forward averages 10.6 points and 6.1 rebounds per game this season. She had a season-high 19 points against Texas A&M-Kingsville and had a double-double in the win over Adams State.
 
Jeffcoat is a transfer from the University of Denver and is the daughter of former Dallas Cowboy great Jim Jeffcoat.
 
SCOUTING THE COWGIRLS
New Mexico Highlands also enters the weekend with a 3-8 record on the year and are winless inside the conference. They have two wins over Northern New Mexico and a win over in-state foe University of the Southwest.
 
Jordyn Lewis paces the Cowgirls averaging 12.4 points and 3.0 rebounds per game. The Fort Lewis transfer has been in double digits in seven of the 11 games this season and went for a season-high 21 points against Texas A&M International and nationally ranked CSU Pueblo.
 
THE COACH
Head coach Taylor Wagner enters his tenth season as the man in charge of the Mavericks. He has amassed a 216-55 overall record (20+ wins per season average) and an astonishing 158-40 (15+ wins per season average) mark inside the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference during his tenure.
 
He has guided the Mavericks to five NCAA Tournament and made a trip to the NCAA Elite Eight during his first season with the program. He has been named the RMAC Coach of the Year five times in that span.
 
ON THE HORIZON
The Mavericks will have one lone road matchup next week. They will make the return trip to Spearfish, S.D. to play the Black Hills State Yellow Jackets for the second time this season. Earlier this season in Brownson Arena, the Mavericks came away with a 77-71 overtime win over Black Hills State.