GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Colorado Mesa enjoyed another wire-to-wire win, pushing the pace to cruise past Colorado Christian 78-58 on Saturday night at Brownson Arena.
 
Blaise Threatt had 18 points to lead the Mavs while Trevor Baskin recorded 17 points and six rebounds. Michael McCurry had nine points and a team-high four assists for CMU, which won its seventh consecutive game and improved to 12-3 overall, 7-2 in the RMAC.

The Mavericks set a season-low with only seven turnovers while forcing 16. They outscored Colorado Christian 21-4 in points off turnovers and 16-2 on the fast break. The Mavs bench chipped in 22 points while the Cougars bench was held completely scoreless, shooting a combined 0-for-7 from the field.

Once again, the Mavs clicked early behind an up-tempo offensive attack that stressed ball movement and creating open looks. Isaac Jessup hit back-to-back three-pointers to open up an early 10-4 lead within the first five minutes.

On multiple occasions throughout the game, the Mavericks utilized a full first unit and second unit, substituting five players at a time. The offense didn't slow down at all after CMU made its first line change after the first timeout of the game, as McCurry and Elijah Knudsen buried three-pointers to make it 16-6 CMU less than eight minutes into the game.

The barrage of threes that fell early opened up some space inside for Baskin, who collected three open dunks among his 11 first-half points. As a team, the Mavericks shot 63 percent from the field (17-27) and 62 percent from three (8-13) in the first half, culminated by a Blaise Threatt three-pointer with seven seconds to go that sent the Mavs to the locker room with a 47-28 advantage.

Threatt came alive in the second half, scoring 10 of his 18 points on 4-for-6 shooting. For the game, seven different Mavericks had five or more field goal attempts, with Threatt, Baskin, McCurry and Mac Riniker all shooting 60 percent or above from the field. Baskin made 7 of 9 shots but was a perfect 7-for-7 inside the three-point arc.

Riniker ignited the crowd with a pair of dunks in the second half. With 12:49 left, Riniker blew by a defender and threw down a ferocious right-handed slam over the CCU center. Three minutes later, Riniker intercepted a pass, and with an open court in front of him, trotted down the court and flushed down a one-handed windmill.

Colorado Christian had decent looks inside, shooting 48 percent from the field, but struggled from deep, making only one of its 11 three-point attempts. Forward Isaiah Alonzo did have a 13-point, 11-rebound double-double in the loss for the Cougars, who fell to 6-9 overall and 2-7 in the RMAC.

Levi Dombro, Eddie Kurjak and Eric Pollert each played the final two-and-a-half minutes. Kurjak and Pollert each pulled down two rebounds in their second and third games of the season, respectively. Elijah Knudsen played 16 minutes, the second-highest total of his career. The freshman guard had eight points on 3 of 4 shooting, including 2 of 3 from beyond the arc.

The Mavericks' two home wins give them much-needed momentum heading into a challenging four-game road trip spanning the next two weekends. The Mavs will head to South Dakota next weekend to face undefeated and No. 3-ranked Black Hills State on Friday and South Dakota Mines on Saturday. On January 20-21, CMU will battle No. 15/17 Fort Lewis and Westminster, which is 4-1 at home in the RMAC so far this season.