GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – On a night that Colorado Mesa men's basketball honored perhaps the most accomplished graduating class in program history, the Mavericks added another accolade and ensured that the road to the RMAC Championship will once again go through Grand Junction.

Colorado Mesa defeated rivals Western Colorado 74-55, completing the regular season with a 25-3 overall record and a 21-1 mark in the RMAC play. Thanks to Fort Lewis losing on the road to Colorado School of Mines on the season's final day, the Mavericks earned an outright RMAC regular season conference title and the right to host this weekend's RMAC Tournament, provided the Mavs win their quarterfinal game on Tuesday.

Trevor Baskin led the way once again, with his 18 points, eight rebounds and four assists all team highs for the evening. Christopher Speller finished with 14 points after shooting 4-for-5 from the field and 6-for-7 from the line while Michael McCurry finished with 11 points and hit three of Colorado Mesa's four three-pointers in the game.

The Mavericks honored six graduating team members on Senior Night Saturday – fourth-years Trevor Baskin and Reece Johnson and fifth-years Levi Dombro, Sam Goulet, Ethan Menzies and Mac Riniker. After tonight's triumph, that group has now won three RMAC regular season titles plus an RMAC Tournament title, while the group of fifth-year players won an additional RMAC Tournament.

With Riniker out due to injury, the other five Senior Night honorees comprised the starting lineup. That meant the first career starts for Dombro and Goulet and the first start in two-and-a-half years for Menzies. Dombro finished with two points and two rebounds, draining a midrange jumper on his only field-goal attempt, while Goulet finished with four points and four rebounds. Menzies scored a season-high eight points alongside five rebounds and three assists.

The Mavericks shot 52 percent (30-57) from the field, just 25 percent (4-16) from three as a team and 77 percent (10-13) from the line. That still outpaced the Mountaineers, who finished 34 percent (22-64) from the field, 29 percent (5-17) from three and 67 percent (6-9) from the line.

The Mavericks outrebounded WCU 42-29 and outpaced the Mountaineers 48-24 in the paint and 17-0 on the fast break. Colorado Mesa blocked 10 shots, including three apiece from Trevor Baskin and Owen Koonce and two from McCurry, while Western didn't register a block.

Western Colorado, which plays at an extremely slow tempo, succeeded in forcing the Mavericks into the halfcourt offense in the first half, which finished with CMU only up by four, 29-25. The 54 combined points by both teams in the first half were still 12 more than in the first meeting between the teams this year, when the score was 26-16 Mavs at the break.

The Mavericks abandoned their usual style of perimeter play and three-point shooting and capitalized on post mismatches inside with Baskin and Menzies and the driving ability of Christopher Speller. The 16 three-point attempts are the fewest by the Mavericks in any game this season, and the four makes are tied with a December 18 loss to West Texas A&M for the fewest in any game this year.

With about two minutes to play in the contest, word filtered through the arena of Fort Lewis's loss to Colorado School of Mines, leading to a standing ovation from the crowd. Head Coach Mike DeGeorge called a timeout to break the news to his team in the huddle and the public address announcer formally confirmed the result to a sold-out crowd of over 2,000 at Brownson Arena.

The Mavericks will play No. 8 seed Chadron State in the quarterfinals of the RMAC Tournament in Brownson Arena on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. It will be no easy task for the Mavericks, who narrowly defeated Chadron 102-95 in overtime on the road in the only regular season between the two teams.