FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — By halftime Friday, Olivia Reed Thyne was halfway to the single-game scoring record that had stood at Colorado Mesa since 1980.
By the end of the third quarter, she was two points away from her career high, which she established the day before.
With 2 minutes, 17 seconds to play in the Mavericks' 95-81 loss to No. 8 Pittsburg State in the Nova Southeastern Holiday Invitational, Reed Thyne did what she's done her entire career, making a contested layup for her 43rd point of the game, eclipsing Kristi Courter's mark of 42.
"I didn't know until it was like, the last two minutes," Reed Thyne said. "Their scoreboard was higher at this gym, we were all talking about it (Thursday), very few of us were looking at the actual scoreboard during the game because it's hard to see and you actively have to be thinking about it. I wasn't looking at the scoreboard and there were like two minutes left and I saw I had 39."
The junior forward made another layup with 23 seconds to play, giving her 45 points on 17-of-25 shooting, which passed Tonya Stites' 1992 record of 16 made field goals in a game. Reed Thyne went 11 of 12 from the free throw line, had six rebounds, three assists, one steal and blocked two shots.
According to the Colorado Collegiate Chronicle, Reed Thyne's 45 points is tied for the second-best single game in Colorado college women's basketball history (Kathy Lightfoot, Colorado State, 1982). Carroll Lillie of Southern Colorado (now CSU Pueblo) scored 51 points in a single game in 1979.
Her 25 field goal attempts tied for ninth in program history in a single game.
The Mavericks (7-4) kept feeding Reed Thyne the ball, because that's what was working, especially in the first half. Although Kylie Kravig scored 13 points, Macy Larsen had 11 and Riley Hayes 8, CMU's fate rested in their All-America forward's hands.
"The last two teams we played had two good posts and I think sometimes when other teams tend to have better posts, they guard me one-on-one, which, I don't know, worked out for me, I guess," she said. "The games where I tend not to score as much are definitely the games where people are packing the paint even before I have the ball. That wasn't the case this week."
Early on, CMU's game plan was working against the Gorillas, getting the ball inside and collapsing on Pittsburg State in the paint defensively. The Mavericks led 21-12 at the end of the first quarter, with the Gorillas hitting only four field goals and missing both 3-point attempts.
That all shifted in the second quarter, when Pittsburg State (10-2) found its range from the perimeter, knocking down five of six 3-pointers, and attacked the paint off the dribble. Colorado Mesa couldn't stop the dribble penetration and sent the Gorillas to the free throw line 28 times, where they scored 19 points. Pittsburg State shot 80% from the field in the second quarter, 53% in the third and 64% in the fourth (57.6% for the game).
Even though the Mavericks shot nearly 47% for the game, they couldn't string together enough stops to get back in the game after PSU's 11-0 scoring run early in the second quarter erased CMU's lead. The Mavs were down four at halftime and after Reed Thyne hit a short jumper in the lane with 3:02 remaining in the third, they trailed 62-59.
Two minutes later, though, the Gorillas had built the lead to 12, converting second-chance opportunities and driving to the basket — Pittsburg State out-rebounded CMU 38-26, with 13 offensive boards leading to 14 points. From there, the teams basically traded baskets, both ending their trip to Florida 1-1. Over the final three quarters, Pittsburg State outscored CMU 83-60.
Sharaya Selsor and Stites had come closest to breaking Courter's long-standing record, with Selsor scoring 40 against Chadron State in 2013, and had 39 that same season against Southwestern Oklahoma. Stites, the career scoring leader at CMU, put up 38 points in 1994 against Western State (now Western Colorado). Erin Reichle and Selsor both made 14 field goals in a game during their careers, with six players, including Reed, making 13.
Reed Thyne now has 1,153 career points, 17th all-time, and her record-setting weekend, with 78 points and 24 rebounds, boosted her season scoring average to 22 points per game, which is second in the conference and sixth in the nation. She's also sixth in the nation in rebound average at 11.8
The Mavericks are now off for the holidays, returning to Brownson Arena to host New Mexico Highlands on Jan. 9.
"We were talking about how it doesn't feel like we're at that point in the season. It's crazy; it's flown by," Reed Thyne said. "But I am excited to go home and see my family and get a little rest."
