GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Colorado Mesa tied a school record with 18 three-pointers, hitting 13 of them in the second half as the Mavericks overcame a nine-point halftime deficit to defeat New Mexico Highlands 94-72 in Brownson Arena.

Owen Koonce finished with a team-high 22 points and 10 rebounds for his first career double-double. Trevor Baskin also had a double-double with 10 points and a team-high 13 rebounds. Christopher Speller scored 20 points and made 5 of 5 three-point attempts for his highest single-game scoring performance in three years.

The No. 14 Mavericks improved to 11-2 with the win and are 7-0 in the RMAC. Dating back to last season, the Mavs have won 16 RMAC conference games in a row.

Saturday night also featured the long-awaited return of Ethan Menzies, an NABC First Team All-American in 2020-21 who then missed over two seasons due to injury. Menzies logged five minutes in two short spurts, one in each half, and collected two rebounds and an assist. Menzies is one of three First Team All-Americans in CMU men's basketball program history – one of the other two, Mike Dominguez, patrolled the opposing sideline as the New Mexico Highlands head coach Saturday.

To call this game a tale of two halves would be an understatement. For long stretches of the first half, it seemed the Mavericks couldn't make a shot, and for long stretches of the second half, it seemed they couldn't miss. The Mavs shot 32 percent from the field and 25 percent from three in the first half, turning the ball over 13 times and allowing the Cowboys to build a 36-27 lead entering the break.

In the second half, the Mavs shot 69 percent from the field, 65 percent from three-point range and 88 percent from the free-throw line, turning it over just once in the final 20 minutes. Speller scored all 20 of his points in the second half while Koonce scored 14 of his 22 points and Mac Riniker scored 12 of his 14 points in half number two. Colorado Mesa outscored the visitors 67-36 in the second half.

The Mavs signaled their intent to rope themselves back into the game right away as the second half began, with Riniker taking the opening inbounds pass and flying through the entire Highlands defense for a full-speed dunk just five seconds after halftime. With the Mavericks trailing 48-44 with 14 minutes to play, Christopher Speller took over.

Speller hit his first three of the game to cut the four-point deficit to one, shooting from the top of the arc and getting a friendly roll off the bank, off the front rim, back off the glass and through the net. Once that went in, it was on.

After the Cowboys went 1-for-2 from the line on their next possession, Elijah Knudsen gave the Mavs the lead, for good as it turned out, with a deep three with 12:54 to go. Speller hit another three on CMU's next possession after a Cowboy turnover, then hit two free throws and another three to make it 58-52 Mavs as the game went under 10 minutes to play.

The hits kept coming from the Maverick offense, as Knudsen, Riniker and Speller (again) hit three-pointers within a 70-second span, with Speller's taking the Maverick lead up to 15 points with 8:21 left. Speller hit his fifth three-pointer of the second half with four minutes to go, which gave CMU an 84-64 advantage.

Speller was the primary contributor to CMU's record-tying night of 18 three-pointers, but he was far from alone. Speller was a perfect 5-for-5 from deep while Koonce went 4-for-7 from beyond the arc. Knudsen, Isaac Jessup and Ty Allred hit two triples apiece while Baskin, Riniker and Christian Speller each hit one.

Colorado Mesa has now scored 90 or more points in each of their last three games and five of their last six contests. The Mavs will take their high-octane offense on the road next week, battling Chadron State on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Colorado Christian on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. Those games will be available to stream on the RMAC Network.