WEEK IN REVIEW
The Colorado Mesa Mavericks moved their win streak to five after the weekend sweep of New Mexico Highlands and CSU Pueblo. The five game winning streak is the longest current winning streak in the RMAC.
On Friday night, the Mavericks moved their win streak to 18 over the New Mexico Highlands Cowgirls after a 60-43 win in Brownson Arena. Olivia Reed finished with 20 points and 17 rebounds while Monica Brooks added 17 points.
The Maverick defense limited the Cowgirls to just 29.5 percent shooting from the field including just 12 points from the Cowgirls leading scorer Juliana Aragon.
On Saturday, Colorado Mesa had a full onslaught of the ThunderWolves as they came away with a 74-43 win. Olivia Reed had 23 points and 18 rebounds while Monica Brooks and Laura Gutierrez each had double figures as well.
Defensively, the Mavericks had a 45-16 advantage in rebounds and limited the ThunderWolves to 30.6 shooting percentage. They also held CSU Pueblo's leading scorer scoreless for the entire game.
BEAST OF THE VALLEY
Freshman Olivia Reed had a monster weekend where she averaged 21.5 points and 17.5 rebounds in the weekend sweep of New Mexico Highlands and CSU Pueblo. The big weekend earned her her second RMAC Defensive Player of the Week honor as she also averaged two blocks per night.
The Windsor native has reached double figures in scoring 18 times which has also helped her to 11 double doubles this season. She reached her 11th double double against CSU Pueblo in the first half without playing the final five plus minutes due to being in foul trouble.
During the weekend, she moved into the No. 15 positon on the single season rebound list as she sits with 245 rebounds. If she gets her averaging of approximately nine rebounds per game she would have 272 rebounds and be in a tie for the No. 8 position with Katrina Selsor.
LET'S PLAY AGAIN
Sophomore Tia Slade has had two double double during this season and both have come against the CSU Pueblo ThunderWolves.
In the first meeting, Slade shot 8-for-15 from the field for 19 points and finished with a career-high 13 rebounds in the narrow one-point loss in the Steel City.
In Saturday's matchup, the Highlands Ranch native played 29 minutes and finished with 12 points and pulled down 11 rebounds.
The two games mark the only times she has reached double figure rebounds this season.
SIXTH MAN
Night in and night out, the Mavericks go with the same starting lineup but they also have a valuable asset to come off the bench should any of the three guards or wings get into foul trouble early.
Laura Gutierrez serves that 'sixth-man' role quite well and last weekend she may have had her best weekend of the year. She averaged 12.5 points per game but played near flawless defense and pulled down six rebounds against New Mexico Highlands which was a season-high and tied a career-high for her.
She also shot over 40 percent from three including making a season-high four threes against CSU Pueblo.
INTERESTING TREND
This week the Mavericks will play on Wednesday and Thursday for the first time this year. Those two days make it six out of the seven days of the week the Mavericks have played on. The only day they havent played 0n is Monday and will have just one more opportunity to do that. If they win the RMAC Tournament, make the NCAA Regional, and make a run to the region championship.....they will play on Monday.
They are 1-0 on Sunday and 7-6 on Saturday's making those two days the most successful for them.
LOOKING AHEAD
The Mavericks are all but assured of a spot in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament next week, but it is still not a 100 percent given.
Despite that, we are going to look ahead and project a possible seed which has more variables. The Mavericks could finish anywhere from No. 5 to No. 8 with two games to play.
The more likely scenario is that they will be No. 6 or 7 when all is said and done which sends them to either Regis, Mines, or Black Hills State. All of which would be on the road.
RMAC PRESEASON POLL
Colorado Mesa was picked to finish fifth in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference as voted on by the coaches. The Mavericks are coming off a year where they made the the NCAA South Central Region Tournament for the sixth time during his tenure.
Colorado School of Mines was picked to win the conference garnering 183 points and eight first place votes. RMAC coaches seemed to be mixed on what they think. Five schools received at least one first place vote which included Mines, second place CSU Pueblo, third place Black Hills State, fourth place MSU Denver, and the Mavericks.
THE LONE SENIOR
With the large group of COVID players exiting a year ago, Colorado Mesa has just one senior on their roster this season. In fact, they have just one junior on the roster as well.
Redshirt senior Monica Brooks is the lone senior on the roster and one of three Mavericks that has starting experience on the team as she entered the season with 19 career starts and has a record of 13-6 in those starts when she started the season.
Brooks will be honored following the game on Saturday evening prior to the the midweek home finale.
THE STAFF
Joining head coach Taylor Wagner on his staff is long time assistant Hannah Pollart. The Colorado Mesa grad has been the Mavericks assistant coach since May of 2016 after a short stop at Northeastern Junior College. She was responsible for on and off campus recruiting, conditioning, weight training, player development, and scouting reports.
With Colorado Mesa, she coaches the posts, assists with recruiting, develops scouting reports, and coordinates travel among other duties taht assist in the development of the program.
As a player, she starred at Colorado Mesa for one season and helped lead the Mavericks to the NCAA South Central Region Championship game. During her senior season, she averaged 7.2 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
