GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Led by a double-double from Trevor Baskin, over 20 points per game from Blaise Threatt and extremely clutch two-way play from Mac Riniker, Colorado Mesa men's basketball tallied its first two RMAC wins of the season to climb back to an even 2-2 in conference play.

Threatt went off for 24 points and Riniker scored 21 last Friday against UCCS, with Riniker converting all eight of his field-goal attempts. Baskin then recorded his second double-double of the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds against Regis on Saturday while Riniker had steals and coast-to-coast baskets on back-to-back possessions to give CMU the lead for good late in the second half.

RECAPS: UCCS | Regis

The Mavericks have just a singular game this week before the Christmas break, hosting Adams State on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Brownson Arena. After that game, the Mavs will be off until a road trip to CSU Pueblo and New Mexico Highlands on December 30-31.

Starting Fast
Colorado Mesa had 13-point halftime leads in both games, equaling their largest halftime lead of the season which they have achieved four times. In addition to UCCS and Regis, the Mavericks also led by 13 at the break against Texas A&M-Kingsville and Simon Fraser.

Against UCCS, the Mavericks utilized a 17-0 run to turn a one-point deficit into a 16-point lead late in the first half. Mac Riniker scored nine points during that run with Isaac Jessup adding five and Michael McCurry contributing three.

The Mavs used a 13-2 first-half run against Regis which also put them up by 16. After the Mavs' fast start against Regis, however, the Rangers nearly rallied for the win, leading by five with 6:23 left before Riniker scored six of eight consecutive CMU points to give the Mavs the lead for good.

Jess-Up Next
One player that will be excited to see Adams State rolling into Brownson Arena is redshirt sophomore guard Isaac Jessup. Two of the three highest-scoring performances of Jessup's career have come against the Grizzlies, including a career-high 15 points the last time Adams State visited Grand Junction.

A key defender for the Mavs all season long, Jessup has been improving his scoring touch, notching a season-high 10 points against UCCS on Friday. Jessup went 3-for-5 from the field and 2-for-3 from deep, his second game of the year with multiple threes. After coming off the bench in five of CMU's first seven games, Jessup started both games this past week, averaging 20 minutes per contest.

Triple Threatt
Redshirt sophomore guard Blaise Threatt is currently the only RMAC player to rank in the conference's top 10 in points, rebounds and assists per game.

Threatt ranks sixth in scoring at 16.9 points per game, 10^th in rebounding at 6.8 per game and tied for seventh with 3.6 assists per game. In addition, Threatt leads the RMAC with 2.3 steals per game and is tied for 10^th with an .818 free-throw percentage.

Facts and Figures
Colorado Mesa is scoring 75.5 points per game, which ranks seventh in the RMAC, and is allowing 68.8 points per game, the fifth-lowest mark in the conference. The Mavericks rank in the top five in the RMAC in team field goal percentage (.477), three-point percentage (.386) and free-throw percentage (.753).

The Mavs have forced the second-most turnovers per game (15, trailing UCCS) and allow the fewest opponent rebounds per game in the RMAC (28.8 per game).

Individually, Blaise Threatt ranks in the top 10 in points, rebounds and assists per game while leading the RMAC in steals. Trevor Baskin cracks the top 10 in two of those categories, ranking 10^th with 16 points per game and ninth with 7.1 rebounds per game. Baskin is also second in the RMAC with 1.3 blocks per game, trailing Ezichi Kalu of New Mexico Highlands, and has the eighth-best field-goal percentage in the conference at .559.

Mac Riniker is averaging a block per game and 1.5 steals per game, which puts him tied for sixth and tied for seventh, respectively, on the conference leaderboards.

About Adams State
The Adams State Grizzlies are off to a 3-7 start in 2022-23, winning one of their first four RMAC matchups. The Grizzlies opened conference play with a home loss to No. 9/22 Fort Lewis before knocking off Western Colorado, 73-71. This past week, ASU lost to both CSU Pueblo and New Mexico Highlands on the road. Adams State is the best defensive team in the conference against three-point shots, with opponents shooting just 27 percent from beyond the arc thus far.

The Grizzlies and Colorado Mesa have one common non-conference opponent. On November 19, Adams State lost 82-77 to Northern New Mexico College, who the Mavs beat 99-75 six days later as part of the Holiday Inn – Airport Thanksgiving Classic.

Junior forward Isaiah Sampson has been on a roll lately, with two double-doubles in the past three games. Samspon put up 14 points and 11 rebounds in the win over Western Colorado and then scored 21 points and 11 rebounds against New Mexico Highlands last Saturday. Sampson leads ASU in rebounds (6.3) and blocks per game (1.1) as well as field goal percentage (.500).

Junior guard Lamont Sanders leads the Grizzlies with 13.3 points and 2.8 assists per game, but only has a total of three points in ASU's past three games while playing in two of them. Sophomore Kolby Walker is the third Grizzly averaging in double figures at 10.5 points per game, including a team-high 24 points against Navajo Tech. Maison Adeleye has the best shooting touch on the roster, shooting a team-high 44 percent from three-point range and 91 percent from the line.

Head Coach Russ Caton is in his eighth year coaching for his alma mater and in his hometown of Alamosa, Colo. Caton has led the Grizzlies to five RMAC tournament berths in his previous seven seasons in charge, with a combined record of 2-5 in those tournaments.

Caton began his coaching career at ASU as a graduate assistant in 1997 and an assistant coach from 2004-06 prior to landing his first head-coaching job at fellow RMAC school UCCS from 2006-12. Caton led the Mountain Lions program to their first-ever RMAC tournament berth and regional ranking, making the conference tourney three times in his six seasons.

As a player, Caton was an all-state performer for Alamosa High School and made collegiate playing stops at Northwestern Junior College and Southern Utah before playing his senior season at Adams State, where he made the All-RMAC second team by averaging 18.5 points per game with a team-high 72 assists.

Series History
Colorado Mesa holds a 56-26 edge in the all-time series with Adams State, as the schools have squared off multiple times in every year since 1985. The Mavericks have been padding their lead in recent years, having won the past nine matchups for the longest winning streak for either team in the history of the series.

In the 2021-22 season, the Mavericks collected the largest win by margin of victory in series history, topping ASU 90-45 on December 17, 2021. The Mavs set season-highs in assists (26), steals (15) and blocks (nine) in that game, with the 15 steals tied for the second-highest single-game total in program history. Isaac Jessup also had a career-high 15 points in that contest.

Last season's second meeting on February 11 seemed like it would be another rout when CMU jumped out to a 20-point halftime lead, but Adams State rallied impressively in the second half to make the final score a seven-point margin at 73-65. Blaise Threatt and Trevor Baskin each had 22 points while Jessup added 12.

In the Polls
Colorado Mesa returned to the D2SIDA South Central regional rankings after falling out of them last week. The Mavericks are tied for eighth in the rankings with 13 points. They hold head-to-head wins over the team they are tied with (DBU) as well as the teams ranked seventh (St. Edward's) and 10^th (UCCS).

The NABC Coaches' Poll currently lists three RMAC teams among its top 10. Black Hills State is ranked No. 5, receiving one of 16 national first-place votes, with Fort Lewis at No. 9 and Colorado School of Mines at No. 10.

The D2SIDA National Media Poll features Black Hills State at No. 4, Mines at No. 9 and Fort Lewis down at No. 22. Both Black Hills State and Fort Lewis are 10-0 while Mines is 9-1 with its only blemish coming in a hard-fought overtime loss to Black Hills State last Saturday. Black Hills State leads the South Central regional rankings ahead of Mines, West Texas A&M and Fort Lewis.

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 the 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.