Grand Junction, CO – The Colorado Mesa men's basketball team put up a valiant effort Friday night against a relentless MSU Denver Roadrunner squad, dropping an 85-84 decision on a heartbreaking deep 3-pointer that fell in just in the nick of time. '
The Mavericks dropped in 15, 3-pointers on the night and tallied eight blocks, five players contributing double-figures.
Trevor Baskin tallied a double-double with 24-points and 10 rebounds.
Reece Johnson was not far behind with 19-points on the night, followed by 16-points from
Blaise Threatt and 10 a piece from
Georgie Dancer and
Jared Small.
Out to an early lead, the Mavericks established their presence beyond the arc early – two 3-pointers from Johnson gave way to a 11-6 lead. From there it was a back and forth affair, with the Mavs holding a two-point edge, 40-38, at the half.
The battle continued in the second, CMU again getting out to a hot start in the first couple minutes. With five minutes remaining it would be the visiting Roadrunners who held the 64-58 lead, only to see it disappear behind key defensive plays and a series of offensive connections on the opposite end.
Baskin would connect from deep with under two minutes to play, giving the 69-67 lead, followed by free throws to open up a 70-67 edge with seconds to go. The series of free throws being granted as the Roadrunners go-to Laolu Oke would foul out.
Ra'Shawn Langston would come up with a key three of his own to tie it up, forcing the extra minutes.
Just as they did in the previous periods, CMU would come out striking early, going up by 4 with 35 seconds remaining on a clutch 3-pointer, by none other than Dancer – who drained the buzzer beater to beat Chadron earlier in the season.
Dancer would head to the line for free throws, after a 3-point shot put MSU Denver within two.
On a literal last second attempt off the in bound pass, Tyrei Randall chucked it up from the Mavericks half of the court, finding the net for the game-winner. The shot was reviewed to determine if it was time remaining, and would ultimately be called good for the 85-84 final.
The Mavericks move to 13-6 on the season, and will turn around and look for the weekend split against Colorado Christian tomorrow at 7:30 p.m.
