GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — A good week of practice led to a good performance Friday night for the Colorado Mesa women's basketball team in a 74-59 RMAC victory against CSU Pueblo.
Playing in their first game of 2024, the Mavericks (10-3, 4-2 RMAC) allowed the ThunderWolves (7-7, 2-4 RMAC) to shoot only 28.6% in the first quarter and 38.5% for the game, relying on their defense to trigger the offense, which was led by freshman Mason Rowland.
"The first game back is always scary as a coach. You don't know if you're going to have a lot of cobwebs and if you're going to lose your edge," CMU coach Taylor Wagner said. "I thought they were locked in. We had a great week of practice and it carried over to tonight."
Rowland scored a career-high 30 points, bettering her previous high of 23, with 11 of her points coming from the free-throw line as a result of her attacking the rim despite going up against the Pack's big front line.
"I think we worked really hard this week defensively and our defense fueled our offense," Rowland said "Everybody was getting after it on the defensive end and I just happened to be the one on the offensive end."
She was blocked three times, but also drew eight fouls — and didn't commit any — and also dished out a game-high four assists.
Olivia Reed, who earlier Friday was part of the NCAA's and Turner Sports' Wayne Cavadi's Division II all-stats starting 5 for December, finished with 20 points and eight rebounds in a matchup of two of the premier post players in the conference.
Alisha Little, who leads Division II with double-doubles, had her 10th of the season with 22 points and 16 rebounds, but the Mavericks made her work for those points — she was 11 of 27 from the field and had only six points in the first half.
"They're a really talented team. They're more athletic than us, bigger than us and it can be a really big challenge. It's important to just move onto the next play," said Reed, who added she tries not to play any differently when she goes up against another top-flight post player. "I think just staying locked in and understanding she's a very good player and very skilled. She's going to get hers but (we were) trying to limit what we can."
Little added seven blocked shots, giving her 52 for the season, tops in the RMAC and the nation.
A 9-0 scoring run in the first quarter helped CMU build a 41-22 halftime lead — the Mavericks had the lead for all but the first 4½ minutes of the game — and it was a 20-point lead entering the final 10 minutes of the game.
Sophie Hadad finished with 11 points and Josee Steadman eight, including a deep 3-pointer with the shot clock running down in the second half.
For the game, CMU, which hosts New Mexico Highlands at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, shot 48% from the field, adjusting to the ThunderWolves' various defensive sets by going to Plan B off their half-court sets.
"We tell our team if they do different defenses, we're going to score differently. You're going to get shots, but the looks will be different. It won't be a certain play we drew up … You just have to look for those opportunities because we're so focused because of so many sets that we run," Wagner said.
CSU Pueblo got 14 points from Leilani Love, who was 6 for 6 from the field and added a pair of free throws, and 10 from Romola Dominguez.
Wagner dipped deeper into his bench than before the holiday break and got a solid defensive effort from Mykaela Moore, a sophomore transfer guard from Colorado Christian. Moore logged a season-high 14 minutes after playing a total of 23 minutes in seven previous games.
"She had a great of practice and that's one thing I noticed, she's doing everything we're asking for and it's great to have her out there," Wagner said. "I feel like we have to get deeper and that's what we're looking for, hoping those girls can prove it Monday through Thursday and say 'Hey Coach, I'm ready to go out there and compete on Friday and Saturday.' You're not going to win with seven kids; it's just not gonna happen."
