HAYS, Kan. – The Colorado Mesa women's basketball team was on the road for their second straight road trip and faced off with an upstart Northwest Missouri State team from the MIAA conference. Turnovers and poor free-throw shooting doomed the Mavericks in a 71-57 loss to the Bearcats at Gross Coliseum on the campus of Fort Hays State on Friday (Nov. 18) afternoon.
 
The Mavericks trailed the Bearcats by just four with 1:03 to go in the half. Northwest Missouri State closed out the half on a 7-2 run that included a pair of free-throws, a three-pointer, and a layup with just two seconds to take a 38-29 lead into the break.
 
Colorado Mesa got it to within five with 4:12 to play in the third after a Jamisyn Heaton made free-throw to make it 44-39 but that was all the closer they would get.
 
The Mavericks turned the ball over 14 times in the matchup, down from their early season average of 17.5 per game, but the Bearcats turned those miscues into 15 points.
 
The other area Colorado Mesa struggled in was free-throw shooting. They were just 14-for-26 (53.8 percent) from the line compared to the 17-for-22 (77.3 percent) from the line for Northwest Missouri State.
 
The Mavericks outrebounded the Bearcats 46-31 and had nine second chance points.
 
Freshman Olivia Reed continued to impress as she recorded her second straight double double, finishing with season-highs for both points (15) and rebounds (18) while playing 34 minutes. At halftime, she had nine points and 10 rebounds.
 
Fellow freshman Jamisyn Heaton was the only other Maverick in double-digits with 11 points.
 
Bearcat Evelyn Vasquez finished with a game-high 17 points.
 
The Mavericks will be back in action tomorrow when they play host No. 3 Fort Hays State at 2:00pm.