GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Colorado Mesa bounced back from a two-point halftime deficit to defeat CSU Pueblo 94-82, securing its 10^th win of the 2023-24 season and improving to 6-0 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and 5-0 at home.

Mac Riniker finished with a team-high 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting while Aidan Kuhl, making his first career collegiate start, scored a career-high 21 points while hitting 5 of 10 three-pointers. Kuhl led a Mavs perimeter attack that took a whopping 43 attempts from behind the arc, as CMU shot 35 percent from deep and 50 percent from the field.

Including Riniker and Kuhl, all five Maverick starters finished in double figures with Isaac Jessup (15 points, 5-9 3PT), Owen Koonce (15 points) and Trevor Baskin (12 points) also contributing offensively for the No. 14 Mavs who improve to 10-2 overall. Riniker, Kuhl and Koonce tied for the team lead with six rebounds apiece, while Jessup dished out six assists.

The Mavericks struggled to make shots in the first half, shooting just 39 percent from the field, 32 percent from three-point range and only 3-for-10 from the free-throw line in the game's first 20 minutes. Still, despite four lead changes and six teams, the Mavs led Pueblo by one before Daeyon James nailed a three-pointer with three seconds left in the half to give the visitors a 40-38 lead heading into the break.

Colorado Mesa wrestled control of the game in the second half. With the score tied 46-46, the Mavs broke out on a 10-0 run in a 90-second span, with a layup from Christopher Speller, two free throws from Baskin and back-to-back made threes from Baskin and Reece Johnson which led to a CSUP timeout.

Riniker scored 17 of his 22 points in the second half, and Owen Koonce had a pair of statement second-half dunks. Koonce slammed home a fast-break to put the Mavs up by nine with five minutes to play and another with three-and-a-half minutes to go where he corralled a loose ball, blew past a defender and went between two others with a one-handed slam to push the Maverick lead to double digits.

Kuhl made his first collegiate start after appearing off the bench in 20 games last season with Division I North Alabama and 10 earlier this year with CMU. Kuhl answered with his collegiate career high, eight points more than his previous CMU high of 13 against Adams State on December 15. The sophomore scored five of CMU's first eight points and had 11 points in the first half while adding 10 more points in the second half.

A physical game saw 49 fouls whistled, split evenly with 25 on Mesa and 24 on the ThunderWolves, which led to a combined 60 free-throw attempts between the two teams. Both teams had to battle through foul trouble in the game's waning moments, with seven players finishing the game with either four or five fouls.

CMU will return to the court in Brownson Arena Saturday night, facing New Mexico Highlands at 7:30 p.m. The Cowboys are 7-5 overall and 4-3 in the RMAC, defeating Westminster 76-69 earlier Friday in Salt Lake City.