GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — With a renewed emphasis on defense, the Colorado Mesa women's basketball team heads into its second road weekend of the season, a much shorter trip to Salt Lake City, Utah.
The No. 21 Mavericks (1-1) play RMAC rival Fort Lewis College (1-1) and St. Edward's University (2-3) this weekend in the Westminster Invite.
Because the RMAC has gone to a 20-game conference schedule, playing a conference opponent in a preseason game isn't frowned upon. The Mavericks face Fort Lewis only once in RMAC play this season, and playing at Behnken Field House will also give the coaches a chance to scout Westminster, which is a home-and-home opponent this season. CMU's home opener on Wednesday, Nov. 20, is a nonconference game against CSU Pueblo, another team the Mavs play only once in-conference.
Scouting aside, the Mavericks will look to get back to their defense-first philosophy this week, something that wasn't up to snuff in the opening weekend.
Opponents shot 45% from the field and 37% from the 3-point line, both well off the Mavericks' season averages of 2023-24, when teams shot 36% overall and only 29.7% from 3, when the Mavs enjoyed an 11.8-point margin of victory.
Although it's only a two-game snapshot, the Mavs have only a 0.5-point scoring margin, 78.5-78.0.
ABOUT LAST WEEK
A split on opening weekend showed a glimpse of what this season can bring.
The Mavericks opened with an 80-78 loss to West Texas A&M, when one bad quarter turned a three-point deficit into a 17-point hole. The Buffs shot 50% in the second quarter after making nearly 45% of their shots in the first 10 minutes.
It also showed the Mavs are resilient, erasing that 17-point deficit with much better defense fueling the offense, and the next night denying Texas Permian Basin a look at a game-tying 3-pointer — Olivia Reed Thyne blocked a 2-point attempt at the horn.
When CMU got into better defensive position in the second half against the Buffs, cut down on fouls and controlled the boards, the Mavericks took a one-point lead in the final minute and had a look at a game-winning bucket late.
The next day, Riley Hayes' hot shooting lifted CMU in a back-and-forth game against Texas Permian Basin. Hayes hit eight 3-pointers, her career high and one off the program record, to key a 79-76 victory.
The game was tied five times and had nine lead changes, with Hayes scoring a career-high 24 points, Mason Rowland 19 and Olivia Reed Thyne 17.
NUMBERS GAME
It's no secret the Mavericks can put points on the board — they lead the RMAC in scoring at 78.5 points, seven better than New Mexico Highlands.
However, they're dead last in defense, giving up 78 points a game, a far cry from their RMAC-best 56.7 points allowed last season.
Reed Thyne is first in individual scoring (24.5), including her career-high 32-point night against West Texas A&M, with Mason Rowland (19.5) fourth and Hayes (15.0) 11th.
Reed Thyne is tied for third in rebounding (11.0), second in field goal percentage (60.6) and Hayes averages an RMAC-best five 3s per game. Kylie Kravig has picked up where she left off last season, leading the RMAC in assists with 7.0 per game.
Hayes and Brooklyn Palmer, the two senior transfers who are coming in off the bench, combined to score 43 points last week, providing all of the Mavs' bench scoring.
POW-POW
The Mavericks swept the first RMAC weekly awards, with Olivia Reed Thyne receiving Offensive Player of the Week honors and Mason Rowland the Defensive Player of the Week award. Reed Thyne shot 60.6 percent from the field in the D2 Conference Challenge, averaging 24.5 points per game. It's the eighth time she's been an RMAC Player of the Week, but the first seven were on the defensive side.
Rowland had nine steals, including six against West Texas A&M, and averaged 19.5 points a game. This is her second RMAC weekly honor, earning one offensive nod last season.
IN THE POLLS
The Women's Basketball Coaches Association preseason rankings has the Mavericks No. 21, the only RMAC team to make the Top 25. The WBCA has not begun its weekly Division II rankings.
Their opening-week split dropped the Mavericks out of the D2CSC rankings after being No. 23 in the preseason. The Mavs dropped from No. 3 to No. 6 in the first D2CSC South Central Regional rankings. That poll is not the official rankings used to determine playoff berths; the NCAA regional rankings come out the final three weeks of the season.
The Mavericks were picked by the conference coaches to repeat as RMAC champions, receiving seven first-place votes and 187 total points.
KNOW YOUR FOE: FORT LEWIS
First-year coach Lauren Zuniga brought in seven transfers, three seniors and four juniors, and a half-dozen freshmen. Two of those senior transfers are from fellow RMAC schools — Darla Hernandez played at MSU Denver and Eva Kingston at Western Colorado. The third senior transfer is Livia Knapp, who went to Durango from Utah State. The junior transfers are all from junior colleges.
Roughly one-third of the Skyhawks' scoring from last year graduated or transferred out, but Fort Lewis does return Samantha Wattawa, who averaged 7.9 points and 6.1 rebounds last season, and Sydney Bevington is out after missing all but a handful of games last season because of injury.
Hernandez, a 5-10 forward, averaged 10.5 points and 5.5 rebounds a game in the opening weekend split. Fort Lewis hosted a D2 Conference Crossover, defeating Western New Mexico 53-47 before losing to Eastern New Mexico 67-48. The Skyhawks played an exhibition game Monday afternoon at Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, losing 101-68.
Turnovers have been an issue for Fort Lewis, which is averaging 22.5 giveaways per game. They've shot 33.3% from the field, 21.6% from the 3-point line and are scoring 50.5 points per game.
KNOW YOUR FOE: ST. EDWARD'S
The Hilltoppers opened the season with three losses in the Canadian DII Classic, the same tournament the Mavs played in last season. Those three games got St. Edward's prepared to host its own D2 Crossover last week, when they defeated Regis 73-67 and Colorado School of Mines 71-51.
In the game against the Orediggers, St. Edward's went on a 19-0 run in the fourth quarter to turn a 4-point game into a blowout.
Defensively, St. Edward's allowed the Orediggers to shoot only 25% from the field in the first quarter, outscoring them 21-6, and 23% in the fourth, a 27-11 advantage. Mines won the two middle quarters by a combined 11 points.
JP Perkins, a playmaking sophomore guard, is averaging 15 points, 5.2 rebounds and 5 assists. Perkins made the Canadian Tip-Off Classic all-tournament team, averaging 14 points in the three games.
St. Edward's has plenty of experience. Like the Mavericks, the Hilltoppers returned four starters and brought in three junior college transfers to add depth in the frontcourt, 6-foot Alayah Flucus, 6-2 Jasmyn Jackson and 6-1 Makena Tomlinson.
Kiana Bennett, an all-region guard at Tyler Junior College, quickly established herself in the starting lineup, averaging 10.8 points a game.
FREE TV
Both of Colorado Mesa's games this weekend will be on the RMAC Network, courtesy of Westminster University. All RMAC regular-season events are free to view on your computer, mobile device or smart TV app. Links are on the Mavs' schedule page and are included above. Once again, the RMAC is charging to view conference playoff games.
DYK?
This is the 50th year Colorado Mesa has fielded a women's basketball team, with its first team taking the court in the 1975-76 season. St. Edward's is also celebrating its 50th season. Fort Lewis launched its program in 1979.
