GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – After two more victories, including easily the most impressive win of the season against a top-3 opponent, Colorado Mesa men's basketball boasts the longest active winning streak in the RMAC heading into the back half of a four-game road trip.

The Mavericks have won nine in a row after beating previously undefeated Black Hills State 80-69 on Friday and topping South Dakota Mines 69-60 on Saturday.

RECAPS: Black Hills State | South Dakota Mines

Blaise Threatt starred last week, averaging 22.5 points, five rebounds and three assists while shooting 53 percent from the field in an RMAC Offensive Player of the Week-winning performance.

Schedule Alert
Colorado Mesa will be deviating from the traditional Friday/Saturday back-to-backs over the next two weeks as they will be playing its three closest geographical rivals.

The Mavs will play No. 12 Fort Lewis on Friday, then have a midweek encounter with Westminster on the following Tuesday, January 24. Further ahead on Saturday, January 28, the Mavericks will return home to face Western Colorado.

Friday's game at Fort Lewis will tip off at 7:30 p.m. and Tuesday's game at Westminster will begin at 7 p.m. Both games can be streamed live on the RMAC Network or listened to on 1340 AM/101.1 FM The Team radio. 

Despite a 9-2 conference record, CMU is fourth in the RMAC standings due to three one-loss teams above them. Here's how the top eight of the standings currently sits:
 

Keepin' It 100
With the win over Black Hills State on Friday, Head Coach Mike DeGeorge tallied his 100^th win at Colorado Mesa. DeGeorge is the fastest CMU coach in history to 100 wins and the third to ever reach the milestone since the 1975-76 season. Assistant Coach Kyle Bossier, who arrived at CMU at the same time as DeGeorge, also earned his 100^th win on the Maverick staff.

The next coaching milestone is not too far away, as DeGeorge is four wins away from reaching 300 over his entire head coaching career. In 22 total seasons between Division III institutions Eureka College, Cornell College and Rhodes College and four-plus seasons at CMU, DeGeorge has a career 296-283 record. He is 101-35 during his time at Colorado Mesa.

Dual Threatt
Blaise Threatt was named RMAC Offensive Player of the Week on Monday by the conference. Threatt went toe-to-toe with reigning Player of the Year Joel Scott, scoring 26 points to keep the third-ranked Yellow Jackets at bay during Friday's upset win. He scored a team-high 19 points against South Dakota Mines, shooting 53 percent from the field for the week.

The award comes just two weeks after Threatt was honored as the RMAC Defensive Player of the Week. Threatt is the only player in the RMAC this season to win both an offensive and defensive weekly award. They are the first two Player of the Week awards in Threatt's career and the second and third for CMU this season, joining Mac Riniker, who won Defensive Player of the Week on November 15.
 
Threatt is putting together a season that might make him the most well-rounded player in the RMAC. He leads the conference with two steals per game and ranks sixth in points with 16.9 per game, 11^th in rebounding with 6.3 rebounds per game and fifth in assists with 3.6 per game.

The guard also joined fellow redshirt sophomore Trevor Baskin on the Bevo Francis Award watch list, a preliminary list of 100 players in contention for the award given to the nation's best non-Division I basketball player. Colorado Mesa was one of only nine schools to have multiple players included on the list.

Slowing Top Options
Colorado Mesa has strong team defense all season, ranking second in the RMAC by allowing just 65.5 points per game. The Mavs will have their hands full Friday night, as Fort Lewis boasts the RMAC's top team offense at 87 points per game and the nation's leading scorer in guard Akuel Kot, who is scoring 24.4 points per game on his own.

Including Kot, three of Division II's top 10 scorers are in the RMAC, and Colorado Mesa has already played the other two, holding them below their season average in both cases. Dante Moses of New Mexico Highlands is averaging 23.4 points per game to rank fourth in Division II, but the Mavericks held him to 17 points in an 84-53 CMU win.

South Dakota Mines guard Brevin Walters ranked eighth in the nation at 22.4 points per game entering last Saturday's matchup with CMU, but only scored 20 on 6 of 17 shooting from the field in the Mavs' 69-60 victory.

Good Looks
Colorado Mesa has had tremendous offensive efficiency this season, particularly in the conference portion of the schedule. The Mavericks have shot 50 percent or better from the field in eight of the past 10 games, going 9-1 in that time span.

The Mavericks have a season field-goal percentage of 48.8 percent, which ranks third in the RMAC. Counting only conference games, however, that ups to 49.5 percent, just .4 percent behind Colorado School of Mines for the conference best.

By contrast, opponents have shot 50 percent or better from the field only three times against the CMU defense this season.

About Fort Lewis
Colorado Mesa will have its third game of the season against a nationally ranked opponent, but the first of the season in which the Mavs will also be nationally ranked themselves. Fort Lewis will enter the contest ranked No. 12 in the NABC Coaches Poll and No. 16 in the D2SIDA National Media Poll.

The Skyhawks are off to the best start in program history, posting a 15-1 record in 2022-23 that includes a 9-1 record in the RMAC. FLC has eight double-digit victories on the season, including two in the past week when they beat Chadron State 84-72 and Colorado Christian 80-62. The Skyhawks' only setback was a 93-79 loss to Westminster on December 17. They have yet to play Black Hills State, CMU or Colorado School of Mines this season, the three teams picked ahead of them in the preseason poll.

A key to FLC's sparkling start has been the breakout of junior guard Akuel Kot. The Amarillo, Texas native leads the RMAC and ranks second in Division II with 24.4 points per game, exponentially improving from his 8.3 points per game as a freshman and 16.6 points per game as a sophomore.

Kot has scored in double figures in every game this season, eclipsing 20 points 10 times, 30 points four times and 40 points once. Although he averaged 23.3 points in the first three games of the season, Kot announced himself on a national stage on November 19 against Texas-Permian Basin, when he scored 45 points on 13 of 14 from the field, 3 of 3 from three-point range and 16 of 17 from the free-throw line.

But it's more than Kot that has given Fort Lewis the highest scoring offense in the RMAC and 11^th-highest in the country at 87 points per game. Three other Skyhawks are averaging in double figures – 6-foot-9 big Brenden Boatwright at 11.3 points per game, senior guard JaQuaylon Mays at 10.6 and sixth man Obi Agbim at 10.3.

Fort Lewis is a middle-of-the-pack RMAC team in overall defense, ranking ninth by allowing 73.7 points per game, and rebounding, ranking seventh by pulling down 35.7 team boards per game.

Head Coach Bob Pietrack is in his eighth season at the helm of Fort Lewis, but has been a Skyhawk for much longer, playing for FLC from 2000-01 to 2003-04 and then immediately joining the coaching staff and serving as an assistant coach for 11 seasons before getting the head job.

His first season as head coach (2015-16) was a smashing success, as FLC won the RMAC regular season and tournament titles to earn Pietrack both RMAC and South Central Region Coach of the Year honors. Pietrack won two RMAC regular season titles in his first three seasons and is the fastest coach in Division II history to reach 50 career wins (needing 57 games). Pietrack has a career 146-68 record at Fort Lewis.

About Westminster
Westminster is off to a 5-12 start in 2022-23, compiling a 4-7 conference record. Despite the overall record, the Griffins have been a tough opponent in their home gym, which CMU will visit next Tuesday.

Westminster is 0-10 this year in games played either on the road or at a neutral site, but 5-2 in the comfort of Behnken Field House in Salt Lake City. The most notable of those wins was a 93-79 triumph over Fort Lewis, which is to date the No. 12 Skyhawks' only loss of the season.

The Griffins are led by junior forward/center Trey Farrer, a 6-foot-9 native of St. George, Utah. Farrer is tied with CMU guard Blaise Threatt for fifth in the RMAC with 16.9 points per game. Farrer also ranks sixth in the conference with 7.2 rebounds per game. He has accumulated five double-doubles this season, although three came in the season's first five games.

Taylor Miller averages 11.3 points per game and two of his three 20-point games this season have come in Westminster's last three contests. Miller also leads the team with 2.8 assists and 1.7 steals per game. He ranks fourth in the RMAC in steals, behind two CMU players in Blaise Threatt and Mac Riniker.

Junior guard Donaval Avila averages 11.0 points per game and is second behind Farrer with 5.2 rebounds per game. Jeremy Dowdell is the Griffins' best asset from three-point range, making 36 of 90 attempts for a 40 percent percentage. Dowdell averages 10.4 points per game.

Westminster is averaging 72.2 points per game (10^th in RMAC) and allowing 73.6 points per game (eighth in RMAC). The Griffins' scoring margin of -1.3 ranks eighth in the conference is the smallest margin among teams with a negative differential.

Head Coach Norm Parrish is in his eighth season at Westminster. Parrish started his tenure with three straight winning seasons, including 2017-18 when the Griffins finished 21-5 and second in the RMAC. Unfortunately, that team was ineligible for postseason play since Westminster was still in its transition period from NAIA to Division II. The Griffins have not qualified for the RMAC Tournament since becoming fully D-II eligible in 2019-20. Prior to Westminster, Parrish was an assistant coach at Division I Hawaii and Utah and was a decorated head coach at Salt Lake City CC for two decades.

Series History
Colorado Mesa has an all-time 49-39 record against Fort Lewis. The Mavericks have won five of the past six meetings but lost six in a row prior to that from 2016-2019, coinciding with the Skyhawks' run of RMAC championship successes.  

 Barring a later matchup in the RMAC or NCAA Tournaments, Colorado Mesa is only scheduled to play Fort Lewis once this season. If the Mavericks and Skyhawks do only play once, it would be only the second time since the 1984-85 season that the western Colorado rivals failed to play multiple times, joining the 2015-16 season.

The two teams split a pair of matchups in 2021-22, with the road team winning each time. Fort Lewis overcome a two-point halftime deficit to beat CMU 83-77 for one of the Mavs' three losses at Brownson Arena that season. A month later, the Mavericks defeated FLC on the road in overtime, outscoring the hosts 12-6 in the final period for an 81-75 win. Blaise Threatt scored 18 and 19 points in the two outings last year.

Colorado Mesa has a slim 9-8 lead in the all-time series with Westminster, which has been in NCAA Division II since 2015. The two teams are tied 6-6 in meetings as RMAC opponents. The Mavericks have won five of the past six meetings but lost four in a row during the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons.

The Mavericks earned a two-game sweep last season, edging out the Griffins 63-60 at home behind 24 points from since-graduated point guard Georgie Dancer. They beat Westminster 63-52 on the road, led by 14 points from Reece Johnson.

In the Polls
Colorado Mesa is currently ranked No. 23 in the NABC Coaches Poll, entering the top 25 rankings for the first time this season. The Mavericks are receiving votes in the D2SIDA National Media Poll.

The Mavs' inclusion in the NABC poll gives the RMAC a season-high of four teams ranked in the top 25. Colorado School of Mines is No. 5, Black Hills State fell to No. 8 after losing to CMU and Fort Lewis checks in at a season-high No. 12.

The D2SIDA Media Poll still has Black Hills as the highest-ranked RMAC team, falling two spots to No. 5, with Mines at No. 9 and Fort Lewis at No. 16.

Colorado Mesa fell to No. 5 in the D2SIDA South Central regional rankings, which ranks the teams in the RMAC and Lone Star conferences. Black Hills State leads those rankings over Mines, Fort Lewis and Angelo State. The Mavs have beaten the No. 7 (Texas-A&M Kingsville), No. 8 (UCCS) and No. 10 (St. Edward's) teams in the rankings.

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.