GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – After suffering its first blemish of the season in Texas the weekend before last, Colorado Mesa men's basketball returned to winning ways with a pair of victories at the Holiday Inn – Airport Thanksgiving Classic and will enter the start of RMAC conference play at 5-1.

The Mavericks cruised to a 99-75 victory over Northern New Mexico behind 18 points apiece from Trevor Baskin and Elijah Knudsen, then a Blaise Threatt double-double and 21 points from Baskin led CMU over Simon Fraser by a 77-62 score.

RECAPS: Northern New Mexico | Simon Fraser

Colorado Mesa opens the conference season with two home games this Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The Mavs will have a big game right off the bat, facing Colorado School of Mines on Friday. The Orediggers are 6-0 and ranked No. 10 in the country. Metro State will enter Brownson Arena on Saturday night. Both men's games will be preceded by the women's team playing the same opponents at 5:30 p.m.

Two-Headed Monster
Two players have been at the center of nearly everything CMU has done so far this season: redshirt sophomore forward Trevor Baskin and redshirt sophomore guard Blaise Threatt.

Each were key in last weekend's wins. Baskin averaged 19.5 points and seven rebounds per game, led by a 21-point night against Simon Fraser. He shot 7 for 10 from the field in both games.

Threatt averaged 12 points, seven rebounds, 3.5 assists and three steals per game, but those numbers were buoyed heavily by a monster performance against Simon Fraser. Against the Red Leafs, Threatt posted a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double with three assists and four steals.

Baskin ranks tied for fifth in the RMAC in scoring at 18 points per game and tied for sixth in rebounding at 7.8 per game. He has made 41 of 59 field goal attempts for a .695 percentage that ranks second in the RMAC and sixth in Division II. Baskin also leads the RMAC with 11 blocks and 1.8 blocks per game.

Threatt ranks 11^th in the RMAC in both scoring and rebounding, averaging 15.7 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. Threatt is eighth in the conference with 3.5 assists per game and is the only RMAC player to rank in the top 11 in all three categories. He also leads the RMAC with 13 total steals and 2.2 steals per game.

Baskin and Threatt each are also in the RMAC's top 10 in minutes per game. Baskin is tied for seventh with 32 minutes played per game while Threatt ranks ninth at 31.3 minutes per game. The Mavericks are one of three schools, along with South Dakota Mines and Colorado School of Mines, to have two players in the top 10.

One Point At A Time
The Mavericks dominated the free-throw line this past week, excelling at both getting to the line and converting their attempts.

Against Northern New Mexico, the Mavs went 23-for-29 from the line, led by a 7-for-9 performance from Christopher Speller. They were even more efficient against Simon Fraser, hitting 23 of 26 from the charity stripe for an .885 percentage as a team.

Blaise Threatt (10-10) and Owen Koonce (6-6) were both perfect from the line. Threatt became the 18^th CMU player to be perfect from the line in a game with 10 or more attempts. The most free throws without a miss in a single game in CMU history is 15, achieved by Daanyal McKelvey against UCCS during the 1998-99 season.

As a team, Colorado Mesa is shooting .745 from the line for the season to rank third in the RMAC. They are in the top 20 in Division II in both free throws made (14^th, 18.5) and attempted (19^th, 24.8) per game.

Making Plays
The Mavericks rank second in the RMAC in both in steals (55) and blocks (22). Aside from having the RMAC's individual leaders in steals (Blaise Threatt) and blocks (Trevor Baskin), redshirt sophomore guard Mac Riniker features highly on both lists for CMU.

Riniker is tied for second in the RMAC with 12 steals, averaging out to two per game. 10 of those steals came in the season's first three games, including five in the season-opener against St. Edward's. Riniker is also tied for fifth with seven blocks, three of which came against Texas A&M-Kingsville.

Christopher Speller also makes an appearance on the RMAC steals leaderboard, tying for seventh with 10 total steals and 1.7 steals per game.

All About The Ball
Colorado Mesa is grabbing the fourth-most rebounds per game (37.5) while only allowing opponents to grab 27.3 rebounds per game, the third-lowest total in the RMAC. Colorado Mesa's rebound margin of +10.2 per game ranks second in the conference and 22^nd in Division II.

The Mavericks have forced 92 turnovers, tied for fourth in the conference, but have committed 96 turnovers themselves. CMU has improved in that category recently, however, tying a season-low with nine against Northern New Mexico and committing 15 against Simon Fraser, under its season average of 16 per game.

Fresh Face
True freshman Elijah Knudsen has used his sharpshooting skills to crack the Mavs' rotation, and the Mead, Colo. native had his first breakout performance against Northern New Mexico.

Knudsen went 6 of 10 from the field and 6 of 8 from behind the arc to tie for the team lead with 18 points against the Eagles last Friday night. Knudsen went a perfect 5-for-5 on three-point attempts in the first half.

There have only been six Mavericks that have hit more than six three-pointers in a game, with CJ Davis, Jess Spivey and Kolton Peterson sharing the school single-game record with eight. Six three-pointers in a game has been achieved 21 times, most recently by both Georgie Dancer and Jared Small in the same game on December 18, 2020.

After combining for 21 minutes in the season's first four games, Knudsen played 25 minutes against Northern New Mexico and 13 against Simon Fraser. He currently leads the team with a .600 three-point percentage (9-15).

About Colorado School of Mines
Colorado School of Mines will enter the RMAC portion of the conference season with a 6-0 record. Most notably, the Orediggers defeated then-nationally ranked Lubbock Christian and another Lone Star school in St. Mary's in the season-opening Conference Challenge, with both games being played at Regis. The Orediggers are ranked No. 10 nationally in the NABC Coaches' Poll and No. 11 in the D2CCA media poll.

Mines has four players averaging in double figures, led by senior forward Adam Thistlewood at 15.3 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. Thistlewood scored over 20 points in each of Mines' two games last week against Kansas Wesleyan and Westcliff.

Redshirt senior Brendan Sullivan, the 2021 RMAC Player of the Year, is averaging 15.3 points per game with a season-high of 27 points against Cal State East Bay and senior guard Sam Beskind averages 13.3 points and four assists per game.

Head Coach Pryor Orser has been at Colorado School of Mines since the 2001-02 season. In that time, he has won five regular-season championships and two RMAC Tournament titles while leading the Orediggers to the NCAA Tournament 11 times, including Elite Eight runs in 2017 and 2021. Orser has over 400 career wins and the second-most RMAC wins in conference history.

About Metro State
Picked seventh in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, Metro State is off to a 3-3 start in 2022-23. The Roadrunners have wins over Arkansas-Fort Smith, Barclay and Cal Poly Humboldt while losing to Oklahoma Christian, Fort Hays State and Sioux Falls.

The Roadrunners are led by senior guard Tyrei Randall, who is averaging 19.2 points per game. Randall scored 20 points or more in each of MSU Denver's first three games, including 25 against Arkansas-Fort Smith and 27 against Barclay.

Sophomore forward Caleb McGill is averaging a highly efficient 16.7 points per game, shooting 58 percent from the field, 63 percent from three and 83 percent from the line. McGill also leads the team with nine blocks.

The Roadrunners live up to their name by playing frenetically. MSU Denver has both committed (136) and forced (118) more turnovers than any other RMAC team.

Metro State has a new head coach this season in Dan Ficke. No stranger to the Denver area, Ficke was an assistant coach at Denver University from 2016-19 and also had assistant coach stints at Wake Forest and Loyola (Md.), his alma mater. Ficke's first head coaching job was at Belmont Abbey from 2019-2022. In just three seasons with the Crusaders, Ficke led the team to three straight Conference Carolinas Tournament championship games, including two tournament titles, and three straight NCAA Tournament appearances.

Series History
Colorado Mesa holds a 41-25 advantage in the all-time series with Colorado School of Mines. The teams split their two meetings last season, with the home team winning by 10 points each time.

The Mavs struggled to a 37.3 field goal percentage, including 29.1 percent in the second half, in a 62-52 loss in Golden before returning the favor with a 72-62 win over the Orediggers in Grand Junction. In that game, Blaise Threatt scored a career-high 27 points. Prior to last season, the Mavericks had won three straight against Mines, but the Orediggers had won five in a row over CMU before that streak.

Metro State has handily controlled the all-time series with CMU. The Mavericks are only 16-31 against the Roadrunners, who made four Final Fours in a six-year span from 1999-2004, including national championships in 2000 and 2002, and back-to-back Final Four appearances in 2013 and 2014.

In the Polls
Colorado Mesa is receiving votes in both the NABC Coaches' Poll and the D2CCA Media Poll. The Mavs are tied for fourth in the South Central regional poll with Fort Lewis, behind Black Hills State, Colorado School of Mines and West Texas A&M.

Two RMAC teams are universally nationally ranked. Black Hills State is No. 5 in both polls while Colorado School of Mines is No. 11 in the Coaches' Poll and No. 10 in the media poll. Fort Lewis is No. 19 in the Coaches' Poll and receiving votes in the media poll.

Colorado Mesa finished second in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, trailing only Black Hills State, who received 14 of 15 first-place votes. Colorado School of Mines got the final first-place vote and came third, followed by Fort Lewis and UCCS.

Coach's Corner
Mike DeGeorge has taken the Colorado Mesa program to unprecedented heights since arriving ahead of the 2018-19 season.

He improved the Mavericks from 11 to 19 wins in his first season and crossed the 20-win barrier in 2019-20, leading CMU to an RMAC Tournament Championship from the No. 4 seed. That clinched what would have been the Mavs' first NCAA Tournament Appearance since 2011, but the NCAA Tournament was canceled in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2020-21 campaign saw the Mavericks start the season with 14 consecutive wins on way to the RMAC Regular Season and Tournament Championships and finishing the regular season ranked No. 1 in the nation.  DeGeorge was named RMAC and NCAA West Region Coach of the Year.

In 2021-22, DeGeorge led the Mavericks to within half a game of a regular-season conference championship before leading the team to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 for the first time in program history, a run that included a win over regional No. 1 seed Lubbock Christian.

Prior to CMU, DeGeorge was the head coach at Eureka College in Eureka, Ill. from 2000-04, Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa from 2004-09 and Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn. for eight seasons from 2010-2018.