GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Elijah Knudsen used the first of what very well could be many three-point barrages to lead Colorado Mesa to a 99-75 victory over Northern New Mexico College in the first game of the Holiday Inn – Airport Thanksgiving Classic.

In just the fourth game of his young career, the sharpshooting true freshman went 6-for-8 from three-point range – including 5-for-5 in the first half – to finish with 18 points, which was triple his career total entering the game. Trevor Baskin also scored 18 for CMU, along with a game-high eight rebounds.

The Mavericks had the advantage in nearly every statistical category, outrebounding the Eagles 42-29 and scoring 28 second-chance points while holding NNMC to 10. The Mavs had a 40-28 advantage in points in the paint and got 51 points from their bench.

Coach Mike DeGeorge was able to dig deep into his depth chart as 15 Mavericks saw playing time, including the first appearances of the season for Eric Pollert and Eddie Kurjak. Fourteen out of 15 got on the scoresheet, with Michael McCurry, Levi Dombro, Christian Speller and Pollert scoring for the first time this season. Ty Allred shot 4 of 9 from the field and 3 of 4 from the line to finish with a career-high 11 points.

The Eagles hung around early, scoring the first five points of the game and leading 8-2 before CMU went on a 21-2 run to take control of the game, which featured a three-point play from Baskin, two three-pointers from Knudsen and a pair of buckets from Allred.

The Eagles went on an 8-0 run to cut a 30-15 lead down to 30-23, but two more threes from Knudsen to go with effective free throw shooting from Blaise Threatt and Christopher Speller quickly had the Mavs' advantage back up to 41-29 with two minutes to play in the first half.

From there, the Mavericks cruised. Their lead was in double digits for the final 15 minutes of the game and was over 20 points for the final 7:17. The Mavericks went 13 for 29 from the field in both halves to finish with a field goal percentage of 44.8 percent. They made 11 of their 21 three-point attempts.

Colorado Mesa will play Simon Fraser on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Brownson Arena, concluding the Holiday Inn – Airport Thanksgiving Classic for the men's side. Women's games will take place before and after the men's game on Saturday, with one additional game on Sunday.