GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — You can't say the Colorado Mesa women's basketball team isn't well-rested.
The Mavericks are coming off an unusually long holiday break, but one that was welcome, both physically and mentally, after a challenging dozen games to open the season.
When CMU (9-3, 3-2 RMAC) tips off the 2024 portion of the schedule at 5:30 p.m. Friday (Jan. 5) against CSU Pueblo, it will have been 20 days between games, but coach Taylor Wagner said the Mavs should benefit from the break. Saturday, the Mavericks host New Mexico Highlands, also at 5:30 p.m.
"From here on out, it's just basketball, no breaks, so hopefully we can lock in on that goal and be ready to play every game," Wagner said.
The team returned to practice on Dec. 27 with a renewed focus on improving defensively and becoming more efficient on the offensive end, Wagner said. He's also looking for more consistency in the primary seven-player rotation, with junior forward Claire Heitschmidt getting acclimated to the Mavs' system after transferring from Central Washington, and senior guard Laura Gutierrez adjusting to being in the starting lineup after serving as the spark off the bench last season.
Sophie Hadad has become a scoring threat from the wing after missing all of last season and much of the two before that with injuries, chipping in 8.4 points a game, and point guard Kylie Kravig, who leads the RMAC in assists, adds 8.3 points a game. Freshman guard Mason Rowland is the Mavs' second-leading scorer at 14.6 points, coming off the bench in all 12 games. Josee Steadman, who also comes in off the bench, is third in scoring at 9.0 points a game and is shooting 50% from the field and a team-best 46.4% from the 3-point line.
"We've got to do a better job of not giving such clean looks to other teams," Wagner said. "When we break it down, we give up way too many layups and giving up wide-open 3s. We've got to make teams take shots that are contested and I think if we can do that we'll start heading in the right direction defensively.
"Then offensively we can take care of the basketball a little bit better and be more efficient on the offensive side. The better looks you get, the higher percentage you shoot and the more points you score, and hopefully that equals more wins."
ABOUT LAST YEAR
This season started about as well as Wagner could have hoped, with five straight victories. Two of CMU's three losses have come to teams that are in the national rankings, a three-point loss to Fort Hays State, now ranked No. 10, and a double-OT setback to Colorado School of Mines, which is ranked 9th in this week's WBCA coaches poll.
Mesa bounced back from that with a convincing 20-point victory at MSU Denver, then came home to knock off UCCS and last year's RMAC champion, Regis, before a nine-point loss at Adams State to close out 2023. The Mavericks faced a 23-point deficit in the second half before rallying behind a 12-point fourth quarter from Olivia Reed, who finished a perfect 10-for-10 from the field in a 24-point, 16-rebound performance.
DOUBLE DOUBLE-DOUBLES
Colorado Mesa's Olivia Reed and CSU Pueblo's Alisha Little are the only two players in the RMAC averaging a double-double, and they'll square off Friday.
Reed is fifth in the RMAC in scoring at 17.3 points a game and leads the conference with 12 rebounds a game. Little is the third-leading scorer at 18.3 points and is second in rebounding at 11.4.
Little leads Division II with nine double-doubles in 13 games and Reed has six in 12 games, tied for seventh in the nation.
The Mavs' sophomore forward has reached double figures in scoring in all but two games (9 vs. Texas Permian Basin and 8 vs. UCCS) and has had 10 or more rebounds in seven games. She scored a career-high 30 points against both Alaska Fairbanks and Mines and had a season-high 18 rebounds, tying her career high, against Permian Basin.
STAT PACK
Reed leads the RMAC and is tied for second in Division II in rebounding and Kravig leads the RMAC in assists with 76 (6.3 per game) and is second in assist/turnover ratio at 2.1. Reed is also No. 1 in the RMAC in field goal percentage (62.4), which ranks her eighth in the nation.
Steadman is shooting 46.4% from the 3-point line, which is second in the conference and 15th in the nation. Kravig's 35.5 minutes per game played leads the conference.
CSU Pueblo's Tomia Johnson is third in the RMAC in assists (55, 4.2 pg).
RMAC COACHES POLL
Colorado Mesa was picked to place sixth in the conference in preseason voting by the RMAC head coaches. Regis was tabbed No. 1, followed by Colorado School of Mines, CSU Pueblo, Adams State and Black Hills State.
SERIES HISTORY
The Mavericks are 32-25 against CSU Pueblo dating back to 1988, 19-11 at Brownson Arena. The teams split their home-and-home series last season, with the ThunderWolves holding on for a 67-66 win at Massari Arena in the first game back from the holiday break and the Mavericks responding with a 74-43 runaway victory in February in Grand Junction.
CMU is 47-18 all-time against New Mexico Highlands, including its current 18-game winning streak. The Mavs claimed a tight 68-63 win last New Year's Eve in Las Vegas, N.M., then cruised to a 60-43 victory at home last February.
ABOUT THE THUNDERWOLVES
Alisha Little is coming off a 21-point, 13-rebound performance on New Year's Eve in a nonconference game against New Mexico Highlands. For the season, the 6-foot-1 redshirt junior forward is averaging 18.3 points and 11.4 rebounds a game, third in the RMAC in scoring and second in rebounding.
Landry Hudson averages 10.4 points a game for the Pack, Leilani Love 10.2 and Autumn Watts 9.6 in a balanced attack.
The ThunderWolves feature two starters who check in at 6-1 — Watts and Little — with Hudson listed at 5-9. Tomia Johnson is a 5-6 junior guard and the daughter of head coach Tommie Johnson, with Romola Dominguez at the other guard spot at 5-7.
Little missed all of last season after the birth of her daughter and Dominguez missed much of the season with injuries.
The Pack is still looking for its first true road win (0-2) this season, going 1-3 in neutral-court games. CSU Pueblo is scoring 66.1 points a game and allowing 63.6, shooting nearly 39% from the field. The ThunderWolves have taken advantage of their size, averaging an RMAC-leading 40.7 rebounds per game, 3.7 more than their opponents.
ABOUT THE COWGIRLS
New Mexico Highlands has lost five straight games heading into the weekend, which started Friday at Westminster University. Highlands won its first two conference games, holding off Colorado Christian 74-73 and then beating Chadron State by 13, both at home, but a close loss at Fort Lewis started its current skid.
The Cowgirls have had several close losses, but are being outscored by nearly 10 points a game. They've shown they can knock down perimeter shots, averaging 6.3 made 3-pointers a game, but teams are getting to the free-throw line and are making nearly twice as many free throws (12.1-6.7) as Highlands.
Juliana Aragon, a 5-5 sophomore guard, scores 12.4 points a game, Delani Harris 7.5 points and 6.5 rebounds and Aja Scott adds 6.1 points and 6.6 rebounds a night.
THE COACHES
Taylor Wagner is 253-80 as Colorado Mesa's head coach, with seven 20-win seasons and two with 30 wins. Wagner led the Mavericks to the Division II Elite Eight in 2013, has seven NCAA Tournament appearances and nine total RMAC championships.
Tommie Johnson is in his fourth season at CSU Pueblo, but before that, he was an assistant on the ThunderWolves' men's team from 2008-2016. After one year as the girls head coach at Sand Creek High School in Colorado Springs, Johnson was an assistant for the University of Denver's women's team for two years under former CSU Pueblo women's coach Jim Turgeon before returning to Pueblo.
Garett Sherman took over at New Mexico Highlands four years ago, but the school did not compete in his first year during the COVID pandemic. The Cowgirls went from 1-26 the year before he arrived to 14-14 last season, their best record since a .500 mark in 2011-12. He was a junior college head coach at Allegany (Md.) and Western Wyoming, reaching the NJCAA national tournament twice, before being hired in Las Vegas.
DYK?
Jaylyn Duran, a shooting guard for the Mavericks from 2015-2019, is an assistant coach for the ThunderWolves. Duran grew up in Pueblo, playing at Pueblo South. She is eighth on CMU's career scoring list with 1,352 points and her 265 career made 3-pointers are the most in program history.
