Box Score GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – No. 9 Colorado Mesa nearly hung 100 on a Colorado School of Mines team that entered the game with the RMAC's best scoring defense, shooting the lights out in a 98-81 win in a nationally ranked showdown in Brownson Arena.
The Mavericks shot 59.3 percent from the field and shot better than 58 percent from the field in each half. They made 18 three-pointers as a team, tying the single-game school record for the third time this season, and had 10 different players make a three-pointer. They were perfect from the free-throw line, shooting 10-for-10 from the stripe as a unit. All of it added up to a 50-point first half, a 48-point second half and the most points scored against Colorado School of Mines since the 1993-94 season.
The win moves Colorado Mesa up to 20-3 overall. The Mavs are currently the second seed in the RMAC, tied with Fort Lewis with a 16-1 RMAC record but trailing the Skyhawks thanks to the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Mavericks gained valuable ground on third-place Mines in the standings with the victory, as the No. 21-ranked Orediggers are now two-and-a-half games behind the Fort Lewis/CMU duo at 14-4 in conference.
Owen Koonce led the way with 21 points on 8 of 10 shooting while
Isaac Jessup finished with 18 points and made 4 of 6 three-pointers.
Trevor Baskin recorded 17 points, all of which came in the first half, and finished with a team-high six rebounds and five assists.
Colorado Mesa imposed its will early, getting back-to-back fast break buckets off steals to jump out to a 4-0 lead with 18:36 to play before Mines called an early timeout. The Orediggers briefly tied the score on a four-point play from Pepperdine transfer Majok Deng, but the Mavericks answered with a bucket from Baskin and a three-pointer by
Aidan Kuhl and would held the lead for the rest of the contest.
The Mavericks hit threes early and it stayed contagious throughout the game. The Mavs hit 8 of 15 from deep in the first half and made 10 threes out of 17 attempts in the second half. Back-to-back triples from Kuhl and
Michael McCurry pushed the lead to double digits for the first time at 27-15 with just over 10 minutes to play in the first half. Koonce scored the final five points of the first half for CMU, pushing the Maverick lead to 50-35 at the break.
Mines didn't go away, battling back to within seven as a Juani Dassie three-pointer cut the lead to 63-56 with 13:58 to play. The Mavericks answered immediately to blow the game out of the water, however, ripping off a 12-0 run that featured seven straight points from Koonce that eventually became a 21-4 run after
Christian Speller, Koonce and Jessup hit three-pointers.
Reece Johnson and
Ethan Menzies both hit triples to enable Mesa to hit the 90-point mark with 5:58 to play and
Sam Goulet hit a triple for what would eventually be CMU's final points of the game with 2:18 left. Goulet's bucket made it 98-75 Mavericks as Goulet became the 10
th Maverick of the night with a made three-pointer.
Colorado Mesa finished 59.3 percent from the field (35-59), 56 percent from three-point range (18-32) and 10-for-10 from the line. Colorado School of Mines still shot the ball well, hitting 52 percent from the field and 50 percent from deep in the first half and finishing the game at 47 percent from the field and 44 percent from deep, but the Orediggers were simply outgunned offensively.
The 98 percent allowed by Mines are by far the most by the Orediggers this season, as Mines hadn't even allowed 90 points to an opponent so far this year. Mines entered the game holding opponents to 68.4 points per game. The 98 points are the third-most offensively scored by Colorado Mesa, trailing a 99-point outing against Adams State and a 102-point performance against Chadron State, albeit in a game that went to overtime.
The Mavericks are back on the court Saturday night against MSU Denver (16-7, 10-7 RMAC), who defeated Westminster on Friday. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. after the conclusion of the women's game.
