GOLDEN, Colo. – A historic season comes to a close for the Colorado Mesa men's basketball team, as they could not climb out of an early deficit in the NCAA West Regional semifinal Saturday, falling to the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks, 74-54.

The Mavericks won the battle of the boards, 37-34, and tallied six blocks on the night but could not slow down a hot-shooting Nighthawk squad. NNU used a 43% shooting clip from the floor, and 11-three pointers, while holding the Mavs to a 36 from the floor and a cold 15 from deep.

A quick foul in the opening minute sent Georgie Dancer to the line for the first points of the night. Ethan Menzies put in a layup for four, but would be the last basket for a good portion of the half as the Nighthawks went on a 15-0 scoring run to take a 18-6 lead.

The rest of the half-found CMU playing catchup and working to close the deficit. Despite two back-to-back fast break baskets, NNU's Ezekiel Alley connected from deep to boost his team to a 34-24 edge going into the break.

As the second half got underway, the ball continued to fall in favor of the Nighthawks while the Mavs offense fell quiet.

NNU led by as many as 23 on their way to defeating the top-seeded Mavs.

Jared Small sparked a late run, putting up 13-points in the second half alone on 3-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc and a perfect 2-of-2 from the line.

Trevor Baskin was the other Maverick player in double-figures with 13-points, three rebounds and a block. Ethan Menzies finished with a team high 12-rebounds, to go along with three blocks.

The Mavericks finish the season 21-2 overall, and will return 4-of-5 members of the starting lineup, as well as the players will not lose out on a season of eligibility.