GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Colorado Mesa ran its win streak to double digits and beat a ranked opponent on the road for the second time in eight days, holding off a late charge to beat Fort Lewis 75-68 in Durango on Friday night. After reeling off 10 consecutive victories, the Mavericks are 10-2 in the RMAC and 15-3 overall.
Trevor Baskin had a monster 17-point, 15-rebound double-double while
Blaise Threatt led the team with 21 points on 10 of 16 shooting.
Reece Johnson added 12 points and
Mac Riniker chipped in 11 points and seven rebounds to lead the Mavs.
Colorado Mesa shot 50.9 percent from the field, making it nine out of 11 games the team has made more than half of its field goal attempts. Crucially, the Mavericks outrebounded Fort Lewis 44-27, helping them never trail in the game despite committing 24 turnovers.
The Mavericks stormed out of the gates, as
Blaise Threatt drove for a layup,
Mac Riniker and
Christopher Speller hit threes and
Trevor Baskin scored a lay-in before CMU missed a single field goal attempt. A pull-up three from Threatt followed by another lay-in staked the Mavs to a 21-5 lead with just eight minutes gone in the game.
After Fort Lewis clawed back to within six, the Mavs went on an 8-0 run culminated by a
Michael McCurry three that put them up 40-25 with three minutes left in the game. However, the Skyhawks scored the last seven points of the first half to go into the break only down by eight, 40-32.
The Mavericks kept the lead around 8-10 points for much of the second half, but an Akuel Kot jumper for Fort Lewis with 1:07 to go made it a one-possession game at 71-68. Kot, the nation's second-leading scorer entering the game, led all scorers with 22 points but was held just under his average of 24.4 points per game.
After cutting the lead to three, the Skyhawks were unable to score again. Riniker and Baskin each hit on a pair of free throws to ice the game and take it to the final total.
The Mavs will have the weekend off before traveling to Salt Lake City to take on Westminster on Tuesday at 7:00 pm. The Griffins were 5-7 in the RMAC and 6-12 overall entering Friday's games.
