GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — A new day, a new lineup. A renewed emphasis on defense translating to offense.

It all led to the Colorado Mesa women's basketball team defeating Colorado Christian 78-55 on Saturday afternoon at Brownson Arena.

With all five scorers reaching double figures and sophomore Macy Larsen, in her first collegiate start, setting a career high for the second straight game, the Mavericks (5-2, 1-1 RMAC) came away with a split of the opening weekend of conference play.

"It makes us harder to guard, and I really like that," CMU coach Taylor Wagner said of the balanced scoring from this lineup. "Every game are we gonna have five people in double figures? I don't know, but it's sure hard to guard, and who do you lock on? Who do you key on? And if we can keep the ball movement going and they're looking for each other, they're all going to find their shot and be able to contribute in every way they want to."

Larsen moved into the starting lineup at one wing, with Brooklyn Palmer starting at forward, and it seemed to spark the entire team. The Mavs got only seven points from the bench, but the reserves played well defensively and were more aggressive offensively.

"We've got girls that maybe haven't started, but are starters, you know? They play starter minutes," Wagner said of Larsen and Palmer. "They're getting better, they're getting more comfortable. Brooklyn is getting more comfortable, Macy's getting more comfortable and hopefully their role increases and the productivity increases as well."

Larsen, who redshirted two years ago to rehab a knee injury during high school and then missed all but two games last season with another injury, is coming into her own. She scored a game-high 22 points and had four assists, going 8 of 17 from the field, hitting three 3-pointers and adding three free throws. She also had three rebounds, two steals and blocked one shot, with only one turnover in 33½ minutes.

"Yeah, I think it's just being more comfortable looking for my shot," she said. "And I think it also helps that we have Brooklyn and Liv (Olivia Reed Thyne) down there, so I think the guards go and help, and then it leaves me open. So I think it's my role if I'm open to hit the shot."

Palmer, in her first start as a Maverick, scored a season-high 15 points, with four rebounds, two assists and one steal. The 6-foot-2 senior transfer from Texas-Tyler provided some strength inside to take some pressure off Reed Thyne, but also showed she can score off the bounce, and hit a pair of 3-pointers.

"I think honestly, it's just being more comfortable, being my first year here, but having previous experience," Palmer said. "I think just the coaching staff here and the team here, just having confidence in me every single day, so it's super easy to go out and just improve each and every day. And I think it's because the culture that we've built here, and just knowing that we've had injuries and we've had different things happen this year, but just trying to find my role and be aggressive. Even if things aren't going the way we want, offensively or defensively, if we can be aggressive, that's what's gonna help us out."

Point guard Kylie Kravig flirted with a triple-double, scoring 13 points, with 10 assists and seven rebounds. Reed Thyne added 11 points and 13 rebounds for her 33rd career double-double and Riley Hayes had 10 points.

The Mavericks set the tone early, giving up only five points in the first quarter, using a 14-0 run to seize control. Kravig drove coast-to-coast to beat the clock in the final seconds for a 20-5 lead.

Hayes started the second quarter off with a 3-pointer, one of nine the Mavericks made in the game, and they led 36-20 at the break.

Reed Thyne sat out the entire second quarter after picking up two fouls, but the guards picked up the scoring, with Kravig scoring five points and Larsen six.

Reed Thyne scored all but four of her points in the second half, beating the Cougars' defense to the low post so they couldn't double- or triple-team her. She and Palmer found one another down low and the Mavericks got back to dominating the glass, with a 41-26 rebounding edge.

Colorado Christian (1-7, 0-2 RMAC) had only two offensive rebounds. Conversely, CMU had 14, and scored 16 second-chance points and outscored CCU 30-16 in the paint.

The Mavericks also had only seven turnovers, and scored 15 points off Colorado Christian's 13 giveaways. With Kravig dishing out 10 assists, the Mavericks had 21 assists on 27 made baskets.

"When she's doing that. I mean, it just makes everybody better," Wagner said of his senior point guard. "We're running our sets good, we're in transition, we're getting points. I really like her role, and especially as a senior. She's really taken off for us this year, and she's been able to score a little bit more than she has in in recent years, so she's just been awesome for us, and hopefully she continues to do that."

The Cougars cut CMU's lead to seven points early in the fourth quarter, but the Mavericks responded with a 15-0 run over a span of 5 minutes, 12 seconds to put the game away.

Two baskets with Reed Thyne and Palmer teaming up were crucial in that span. One came after Palmer missed a 3, but Reed Thyne got the offensive rebound. She got the ball to Palmer, then posted up and got the ball back for second-chance layup and a 66-50 lead.

After Hayes buried a 3 from the wing, the Mavericks broke Colorado Christian's press, with Reed Thyne hitting Palmer with a pass inside for a three-point play and a 22-point advantage with just more than three minutes to play.

"I mean, she's an amazing player, obviously, so people are going to have to double team her, because there's not really anyone that can stop her," Palmer said of Reed Thyne. "So it's going to leave other people on our team open. And she's really good at recognizing when to take it herself and when to kick it out, so her presence in there just helps the team so much, because she can take it and she can also dish it out to the rest of us."

Colorado Christian shot 39 percent from the field. The Mavericks found open shooters, scored in transition and shot 43 percent, and added 15 points at the free throw line.

The jury is still out on the Thursday night-Saturday afternoon schedule the RMAC has adopted, but with several nagging injuries, having a day off between games was a benefit, Wagner said. Every Saturday game during conference play will start at 1 p.m. this season.

"It's nice to play right away when you lose and get back out on the court," he said. "We're a little bit beat up, so it was nice for some of the girls to kind of rest for a day. I don't know if our crowd is the same as it's been with the Friday night and Saturday night, so I think we've got to get used to it a little bit more and we'll see."