GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — With a break in conference action, the Colorado Mesa women's basketball team left the snow-capped mountains and headed to the Sunshine State for a couple of days.
The Mavericks (6-3, 2-2 RMAC) play in the Nova Southeastern Holiday Invitational in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Thursday and Friday, matched up against teams from the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association.
All four teams have been ranked at one point this season in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association and/or the D2 Conference Sports Communicators rankings.
"We were trying to fill the schedule, with our two less conference games and how they changed it from last year, so we were trying to pick up a couple more nonconference games," said CMU head coach Taylor Wagner, whose team was ranked No. 21 in the WBCA preseason poll and No. 23 in the D2CSC preseason rankings. "This actually just worked out the best because of this week being open. It was just one of those things that worked out for us and felt like it would be really good competition."
On Thursday, Colorado Mesa faces Northwest Missouri State, which has been ranked as high as No. 4 in the D2CSC poll and No. 9 in the WBCA rankings this season. The Bearcats have fallen out of the polls after back-to-back losses.
Friday, CMU faces Pittsburg State (Kan.), which is No. 10 in the D2CSC rankings and No. 8 in the WBCA poll.
Both games tip off at 10 a.m. (MST) at Rick Case Arena. The Sharks, who play Pittsburg State on Thursday and Northwest Missouri State on Friday, are receiving votes in both polls.
Free, live video streams of all games will be available on the Sunshine State Conference Digital Network (sunshinestateconference.tv). A tournament web page is located at the link above for live statistics and results.
The break from conference play will give the Mavericks a good look at some of the top competition from outside the South Central Region.
"I think it'll be a great measuring point for us, just to kind of see where we're at after four conference games," Wagner said. "A top 10 team and another one of them, I think in the top 25, so I just feel like it'll be a good measuring stick for our girls to kind of just see, this is where we need to be at later on in the season. We're gonna learn a lot. With the injuries that we've had, yeah, we're not going to come back from those, but I feel like we we can do a good job and come out here and compete and hopefully come away with some wins."
ABOUT LAST WEEK
So far, a line from one version of the poem "Monday's Child" is apropos for the Mavericks: Thursday's child has far to go.
The Mavericks are 0-2 on Thursdays in the first year of the RMAC's new schedule format, but they've come back strong on Saturday afternoons.
Regis made two free throws with less than two seconds to play last Thursday night to break a 61-61 tie and the Mavs missed a shot at the buzzer in a game that had 13 lead changes and was tied four times.
CMU came back with a vengeance on Saturday against Colorado School of Mines, scoring the first seven points of the game and using a 13-0 scoring run in the third quarter to pull away for a 67-48 victory in Golden. The Mavericks led from the opening basket.
BY THE NUMBERS
The Mavericks are second in the RMAC in scoring (70.2 ppg) and third in defense (58.8 ppg), and have the top scoring margin (11.4) in the conference.
Two of CMU's three losses have been by two points, 80-78 to West Texas A&M in the season opener when the Mavericks rallied from a 17-point deficit in the second half, and 63-61 last week at Regis, when the Rangers made two free throws with less than two seconds to play to break the tie.
Olivia Reed Thyne is third in the conference in scoring (18.2) and leads the way in rebounding (11.8), one of only two players averaging a double-double (Maison White, UCCS, 11.9 ppg/10.4 rpg). Reed Thyne is also second in field goal percentage at 54.7.
Kylie Kravig has become a consistent scoring threat along with setting up her teammates this season, and is 17th in the conference in scoring (12.7). Kravig is fourth in free throw percentage (84.1), first in assists (61, 6.8 pg) and assist/turnover ratio (2.3). As a team, CMU is first in assists with 16 per game, and has a 1.44 assist/turnover ratio.
Riley Hayes, the top 3-point shooter in the RMAC (36.5%, 3.4 pg), is 12th in scoring (13.6 ppg).
Nationally, Reed Thyne is fourth in rebounding, 32nd in scoring and tied for third with six double-doubles; Kravig is sixth in assists, fourth in assists per game and 19th in assist/turnover ratio; and Hayes is sixth in 3-pointers per game.
CMU is third in Division II in team assist/turnover ratio.
POW-ERFUL WEEK
Olivia Reed Thyne received her second RMAC Player of the Week honor of the season on Monday, this time on the defensive end. The junior forward from Windsor had back-to-back double-doubles, giving her 27 for her career, in a road split.
She scored 17 points, with 14 rebounds, in the Mavs' last-second loss at Regis, and followed it with a 19-point, 16-rebound performance in a 19-point win at Colorado School of Mines. Reed Thyne, who opened the season with the RMAC Offensive Player of the Week award, had four assists in each game and blocked three shots against the Orediggers.
She's scored in double figures in every game this season and had had 10 or more rebounds in six of the Mavs' nine games.
SCOUTING THE BEARCATS
Northwest Missouri State (7-2, 0-2 MIAA) has played a rugged preseason schedule, facing three of the top five teams in the WBCA preseason poll and going 2-1 in those games. The Bearcats opened with a win over preseason No. 5 Ashland before losing to No. 2 Texas Woman's. The next week, they defeated MSU Moorhead and defending national champion Minnesota State, the start of a six-game winning streak.
The Bearcats, picked to finish third in the MIAA behind Pittsburg State and Fort Hays State, are a veteran team, led by two graduate students, three seniors and four juniors.
They're coming off back-to-back losses to Missouri Western and Emporia State to start MIAA play.
Molly Hartnett, a 5-foot-9 graduate senior guard, is third all-time in NWMSU scoring history, entering Thursday's game with 1,514 points, and is averaging 7.9 points a game. Caely Kesten, a 5-8 graduate guard, is No. 7 in Division II in 3-point shooting percentage at 51.7, making a conference-leading 30 treys, which is fifth in the nation. She averages 12.5 points a game.
The Bearcats rely on defense, holding opponents to 57.2 points and 38% shooting. They average seven 3-pointers a game and allow only three.
SCOUTING THE GORILLAS
Pittsburg State (9-1, 2-0 MIAA) enters the NSU Holiday Invitational on a nine-game winning streak. Each win was decisive, with the smallest margin of victory being 14 points. The Gorillas' only loss came to No. 15 Ferris State in the season opener by 10 points.
With an average margin of victory at 20.9 points per game, the Gorillas have been solid on defense and offense. They shoot 46.6% as a team and hold opponents to 36.3%, and they make 35% of their 3-point attempts, 10% better than their foes.
Pittsburg State also out-rebounds its opponents by 10 per game, with 6-foot senior center Karenna Gerber grabbing 8.1 a game.
Gerber is also the Gorillas' leading scorer at 15.6 points per game, with Macie Mays, a 5-11 sophomore guard/forward, adding 14.5 and Grace Pyle, a 5-11 senior guard, chipping in 13.1. Pyle is PSU's top 3-point threat, making 26 through the first 10 games.
Pittsburg State is another veteran team, with four seniors, one redshirt junior and three juniors.
THE COACHES
Taylor Wagner is in his 13th season in charge of the CMU women's program, with a 275-87 record (.759). In RMAC play, he has a 204-60 mark (.773). He's the second-longest tenured coach in program history and is also second in wins. Wagner took the Mavericks to the Division II Elite Eight in his first season, has won or shared in six conference regular-season championships, two RMAC Tournament titles, earned seven regional tournament bids and six RMAC Coach of the Year awards, including 2023-24.
Austin Meyer is in his seventh season as the head coach at Northwest Missouri State. He took the Bearcats to the MIAA Tournament for the first time in six years in the 2019-20 season, reaching the quarterfinals. Last season, Northwest Missouri was the MIAA runner-up and won the second-most games (23) in program history. It was the first time the Bearcats had won 20 or more games since 2010-11.
Before taking over the women's program, Meyer was an assistant coach on the men's team for 10 years, including four as the associate head coach.
Amanda Davied is a graduate of Pittsburg State, and, like Meyer, was an assistant coach before being elevated to head coach seven years ago.
She led the Gorillas to the MIAA Tournament championship for the first time in program history last season. They reached the semifinals of the Central Regional. She won her 100th game as a head coach last December, the fastest in program history to achieve that milestone.
Davied was the top assistant coach for 14 seasons before taking over as head coach. During her playing career at Pittsburg State, Davied scored 1,299 points, ninth all-time in career scoring. She set the program's career assists record with 553 and career free throw percentage (.884, 313-371).
DYK?
Pittsburg State is the only college in the U.S. with a Gorilla as its official mascot. The Gorilla was dubbed Gus, and the school eventually got him a mate, named Gussie. When the school added women's sports in the 1970s, they were officially known as the "Gussies." In 1989, members of the women's athletic teams voted to drop "Gussies" and become "Gorillas," like the men's teams.
