DENVER – Colorado Mesa men's basketball picked up a key RMAC victory against the conference's fourth-place team, defeating Regis 88-78 on the road to improve to 18-3 overall and 14-1 in the RMAC.

Owen Koonce led CMU with 21 points and eight rebounds, shooting 7-for-9 from the field and notching his fourth 20-point game of the season. Isaac Jessup was right behind with 20 points, just two off a career-high, while Trevor Baskin finished with 18 points and a team-high five assists.

The Mavericks will end Friday night either a half-game ahead or behind Fort Lewis for first place in the RMAC, depending on the outcome of FLC's game. Regis falls to 12-10 overall and 9-7 in the RMAC with the defeat. The Mavs have now swept the season series over the Rangers, the first of eight teams CMU will play for a second time as part of the RMAC regular season.

Colorado Mesa jumped out to a lead early in this one, making seven threes and draining 15 of 17 free-throw attempts in the first half alone. The Mavericks held the lead for the final 37 minutes of game time, led by 13 at halftime and were up by as many as 23 points in the second half before Regis trimmed the deficit late. The 10-point final margin of victory was the smallest lead of the second half for CMU as the hosts closed the game on an 11-2 run with the outcome essentially solidified.

The Mavs dominated Regis on the glass, outrebounding the Rangers 44-25. Christopher Speller tied a career-high with nine rebounds while also adding eight points. The extra hustle paid huge dividends in the first half, when the Mavs outscored Regis 13-0 in second chance points over the first 20 minutes.

Both Koonce and Jessup got out to hot offensive starts, with Koonce scoring 15 of his 21 and Jessup scoring 13 of his 20 in the first half. Koonce and Baskin both made it to the charity stripe six times apiece in the first half, combining to hit 11 of those 12 free throws. With 17 first-half free-throw attempts, the Mavericks shot more free throws in the first half tonight than they had over 11 of their previous 20 complete games this season.

The Mavericks finished the night shooting 57 percent from the field (32-56), 33 percent from three (9-27) and 79 percent from the line (15-19). The Rangers were held to just 43 percent shooting (29-67), though they did shoot 40 percent from behind the arc (10-25).

A total of 14 Mavericks saw action, with 10 playing double-digit minutes and six (Baskin, Koonce, Jessup, Mac Riniker, Christopher Speller and Aidan Kuhl) playing over 20 minutes. Ty Allred, Levi Dombro, Sam Goulet and Ethan Menzies all checked in for the final three minutes of the game, with Allred collecting two points.

Colorado Mesa will take the court Saturday night at UCCS (10-11, 6-9 RMAC entering Friday). Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.