Lakewood, Colo. - The #21 Colorado Mesa University Men's Basketball Team would suffer a loss in their season opener of the 2024-25 season this morning as they were defeated by the Hilltoppers of St. Edward's University 94-65 at CCU Events Center for their first game of the D2 Conference Challenge, hosted by Colorado Christian University.
With the defeat CMU starts the season 0-1, with St. Edward's improving to 3-1 as they started their season a weekend ago at the Montana State University Billings Tip-Off Classic.
This game would be the first of Head Coach Mike Dunlap's career at CMU as he and the team look to continue the success that the Mavericks have produced in recent years.
The Mavs will look to bounce back from today's loss as they play again tomorrow at 11 a.m. when they finish their stay at the D2 Conference Challenge. They will take on #5 Dallas Baptist University tomorrow who plays against CCU today.
In today's game, the Mavs would have five players who scored in the double digits with Freshman Mason Honeyman leading the squad with 15 points himself in his college debut. He would score all 15 points in the second half.
Other debuting freshmen in Harvey White and Will Mortimore would both notch 10 plus points with White scoring 11 and Mortimore with 10.
Ty Allred would score 11 points with transfer Yaak Yaak adding 10 himself to even out the team's leaders.
Allred and Mortimore would also serve as the team's rebound leaders with Allred coming close to a double-double with eight boards and Mortimore grabbing seven boards himself.
St. Edward's would put up their best shooting performance of the season in today's game as they were 19-35 from beyond the arc. In the first half alone, they were 12-23 from three-point range. They shot 54.3% from three-point range alone to shoot better than their field percentage of 47.2% for an onslaught of three-pointers that the Mavs just couldn't match.
CMU would shoot 44.2% from the field to have a better percentage than the Hilltoppers but struggled from three-point range only making eight of their 26 shots for a 30.8% three-point percentage.
They would struggle to control the ball as well as they totaled 18 turnovers with St. Edward's applying a full court press nearly the entire 40 minutes.
The Hilltoppers would come out of the gates firing in the first half as they would make five three-pointers in their first eight scores to start the day with a 20-5 lead. Their hot shooting to would lead them to gaining a 15-point lead only seven minutes into the contest. The Mavs would battle back to close any more runs by the Hilltoppers, but ultimately trail by 18 to end the first half.
Allred would close the first half on a high note for the Mavs as with 3.1 seconds left to play, he would receive an inbound pass to which he shot from nearly half court to give the Mavs a last second three-pointer to make the game 49-31 at half.
The Mavs would play a better second half, scoring 34 points this time and holding St. Edward's to 45 points, four less than the first half, but still struggle to stop the Hilltoppers hot shooting as they would outscore the Mavs 21-10 to start the second half.
The Hilltoppers would end their day with a 9-2 run in the closing minutes, stopping any chance of a comeback by the Mavs.
St. Edwards would lead by as much as 31 points in the game with them leading by double digits ever since the game was 15-5 just five minutes in. Leading their scoring attack would be the pair of Mason Courtney and Gavino Ramos who both scored over 20 points each. Courtney would score 23 with Ramos adding 21, while going 5-10 from beyond the arc.
CMU will take on DBU tomorrow for the first time since last season, when they opened the 2023-24 campaign against them. DBU would closely beat the Mavs in that game by a score of 89-84. Streaming for tomorrow's game will occur on the RMAC Network again with live stats available to follow along with.
