CANYON, Texas – Colorado Mesa used a 13-0 run with five minutes left to wrestle control of a back-and-forth NCAA Tournament first round matchup, defeating Eastern New Mexico 95-77 in the first of four Saturday quarterfinals at the First United Bank Center.

The win advances the third-seeded Mavericks to the second round, where a familiar foe awaits in No. 2 seed Fort Lewis, which cruised to an 86-72 win over Lubbock Christian in the first round. The Mavs and Skyhawks will clash for the third time this season at 4 p.m. (MT) on Sunday in the regional semifinal. The Mavericks are now 4-10 in program history in the NCAA Tournament.

Simply put, the Mavs relied on their best players to make plays. RMAC Player of the Year Trevor Baskin tallied 31 points and 13 rebounds while shooting 12 of 17 from the floor and 2 of 3 from three-point range. Baskin also had two blocks and two steals, one of which kicked off a highlight-reel give and go with Christopher Speller that ended with an emphatic Baskin dunk at the other end and sent the Mavs off and running on their 13-0 run.

Speller finished with 13 points, five rebounds and a game-high nine assists. Isaac Jessup, the team's leader this year in three-point makes and attempts, shot 3 of 6 from deep and 7 of 10 from the field overall to finish with 17 points, his fourth-highest point total this season.

Colorado Mesa shot 54 percent from the field over the course of the game and dominated inside with a 54-32 edge in points in the paint over the Greyhounds. The Mavericks let Baskin go to work in the post anytime they needed a bucket and played inside-out all game long. Ethan Menzies, who made just his second start of the season for CMU, finished with eight points on 4 of 5 shooting to go with four rebounds and six assists.

The Mavericks turned in an inspired defensive effort as CMU's defense, which entered the game with an RMAC-low opposing field goal percentage of 42.5 percent, won the battle against the high-octane ENMU offense, which entered averaging over 90 points per game.

The Greyhounds, who entered the game ranked second in all of Division II with a 42.1 percent three-point percentage, only managed 25 percent shooting from beyond the arc and 38 percent shooting from the field. All-region Greyhounds guard Jahcoree Ealy finished with 16 points, under his season average of 20.5 per game.

The Mavericks had a narrow 41-40 rebounding advantage while both teams had 17 turnovers. Eastern New Mexico had eight blocks compared to just two for CMU, but the Mavericks came away with 13 steals to ENMU's five.

In front of a largely pro-Greyhound crowd filled with fans who made the short 90-mile trip from Portales, New Mexico to Canyon, Texas, both teams came out on fire offensively and traded punches throughout the first half, which featured six lead changes and seven ties. In a fast and furious start to the contest, Colorado Mesa scored on six of its first seven field goal attempts while ENMU scored on six of its first nine as the Greyhounds led 15-14 six minutes into the game.

Colorado Mesa took the lead for good thanks to a three-pointer from Isaac Jessup with five minutes in the first half to make it 35-34 Mavericks. Jessup hit another three on the Mavs' next possession to give CMU a four-point lead, the same margin that the Mavs led by at halftime as they headed to the locker room with a 46-42 advantage.

The Mavs went on a run immediately out of the break, with an Owen Koonce three pushing the CMU lead to 12 at 59-47 with 16:44 remaining, but Eastern New Mexico answered back with a 7-0 run to trim the lead. The Greyhounds cut the lead to three on three separate occasions, including on a pair of free throws which made it 76-73 Mavericks with 6:31 to play.

In the game's key sequence, Eastern New Mexico missed a layup but got the offensive rebound and tried to lob it back to midcourt. Instead, Baskin read the pass and tipped the ball back to Chirstopher Speller while falling to the seat of his pants. Speller drove left on the fastbreak while Baskin got to his feet, charged towards the hoop and took the pass in stride from Speller before finishing with a one-handed flush.

That bucket would be the first of six field goals in a row that the Mavericks would make over a three-and-a-half minute span. Koonce followed with a layup before Baskin went 1 of 2 from the line, grabbed a defensive board and threw down another dunk at the other end to make it 83-73. Reece Johnson followed with two buckets in the paint, with one assist coming from Menzies and one coming from Speller to prompt an ENMU timeout.

Baskin added a pair of free throws with 2:41 remaining to complete Colorado Mesa's 13-0 run and opening up an 89-73 lead for the Mavericks. The Mavericks only shot 17-for-27 (63 percent) from the free-throw line as a team, but hit enough free throws down the stretch to ice the game and secure an 18-point margin of victory which was also CMU's largest lead of the day.

The win is Colorado Mesa's 28^th win of the season, extending a single-season program record. This marks just the third season in program history that CMU has won an NCAA Tournament game, with 2024 now joining the 2010 and 2022 seasons. Colorado Mesa will try to clinch the program's second-ever berth in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen with a win on Sunday.