GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The final day of the RMAC regular season couldn't have gone any better for Colorado Mesa men's basketball.

First, the Mavericks closed the regular season with a 74-55 victory over rivals Western Colorado, clinching their 25^th win of the season and 10^th win in a row. Colorado Mesa is now 25-3 overall with a 21-1 record in the RMAC.

On the Front Range Saturday night, Colorado School of Mines beat Fort Lewis 70-65, which transformed CMU's postseason outlook from RMAC co-champs with Fort Lewis and a No. 2 tournament seed to an outright RMAC Championship and the No. 1 seed in this week's conference tournament.

The draw is far from easy, however, as the Mavericks will welcome eighth-seeded Chadron State to Brownson Arena on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. The two teams have played once this season, and it was a classic, with CMU pulling out a 102-95 overtime win on the road in Nebraska. Should the Mavs win Tuesday, Brownson Arena will play host to the semifinals and finals of the RMAC Men's Basketball Tournament for the second straight season.

The game will be available on a pay-per-view live stream on the RMAC Network. Fans can also listen to the game on The Team 1340 AM radio, follow along via live stats or purchase tickets from the RMAC.

A Note From the RMAC
The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference has announced the addition of a subscription model to all 2023-24 RMAC championship broadcasts on the RMAC Network, the league announced Wednesday. The announcement comes after support from league leadership in the summer to implement the pay-per-view concept as a manner to offset the league's broadcasting initiatives and operations associated with championship events.
 
Fans will be able to purchase day passes for each day of tournament play, priced at $9.95 per day. To purchase the day pass, fans will navigate to www.rmacnetwork.com and will be directed to select the institution that they are supporting through their viewership. Once the payment submission is complete, fans will have access to any RMAC championship contest available for that specific sport. Day passes will expire within 24 hours of the purchase.
 
For technical support questions, fans may submit a support ticket with Hudl Support or email the RMAC directly (help@rmacsports.org). For further support, fans can visit the RMAC Network Help page.

Looking Back
Colorado Mesa secured an outright RMAC regular season championship, capping off Senior Night with a 74-55 rivalry win over Western Colorado.

RECAP: Western Colorado

Six Mavericks were honored as part of Senior Night ceremonies – Trevor Baskin, Levi Dombro, Sam Goulet, Reece Johnson, Ethan Menzies and Mac Riniker. The five honorees (minus Riniker, who was out with injury) compiled the starting lineup, which marked the first career starts for Dombro and Goulet and the first start in two-and-a-half years for Menzies, another milestone in the former All-American's comeback from multiple knee surgeries.

Trevor Baskin led the team with 18 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Menzies scored a season-high eight points to go with five rebounds and three assists. Dombro played a season-high nine minutes.

Winning Feeling
On Saturday night, Colorado Mesa clinched the 14^th RMAC regular-season title in program history and its third in the last five seasons. Of the 14 titles, five were shared while nine were won outright, including this year's crown.

With a 25-3 record this season, the Mavericks are just a win away from tying the program single-season record for wins, set in 2021-22 when the Mavs went 26-10 during their run to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Colorado Mesa has equaled its 25 wins from last season, when CMU went 25-6.

The 21-1 regular season RMAC record is the best in program history. The only other time that the Mavs finished with one loss or fewer during the RMAC season was 2020-21, when CMU had an 18-1 record but had three RMAC games canceled due to COVID-19.

The Bracket
Colorado Mesa pulled ahead of Fort Lewis on the season's final day, but that wasn't the only drama in the standings. Here is how the final RMAC regular season standings finished:

Teams with *asterisk qualified for the RMAC Tournament:
 

School	RMAC Record	Overall
*Colorado Mesa	21-1	25-3
*Fort Lewis	20-2	25-3
*Colorado School of Mines	17-5	23-7
*Black Hills State	14-8	16-12
*MSU Denver	13-9	19-9
*Regis	12-10	15-13
*CSU Pueblo	10-12	14-14
*Chadron State	9-13	12-16
South Dakota Mines	9-13	11-17
UCCS	8-14	12-16
Western Colorado	8-14	11-17
Colorado Christian	7-15	10-17
New Mexico Highlands	7-15	10-17
Adams State	6-16	8-20
Westminster	4-18	8-20

Black Hills State went 2-0 on the week to pull ahead of MSU Denver, which went 1-1 with a loss to Fort Lewis and dropped to the No. 5 seed. The Roadrunners will now have to travel to Black Hills for their first-round matchup.

South Dakota Mines lost twice at home in the final weekend to tumble out of the qualification places. The Hardrockers lost to Chadron State and Colorado Christian. The Chadron State loss proved especially damaging, since that gave Chadron a season sweep of South Dakota Mines, and the head-to-head tiebreaker played to give Chadron the No. 8 seed.

The Tuesday quarterfinal matchups, all hosted by the higher seeds, are as follows:
No. 7 CSU Pueblo @ No. 2 Fort Lewis, 6:00 p.m.
No. 6 Regis @ No. 3 Colorado School of Mines, 7:00 p.m.
No. 5 MSU Denver @ No. 4 Black Hills State, 7:00 p.m.
No. 8 Chadron State @ No. 1 CMU, 7:30 p.m.

After the quarterfinals, the highest remaining seed will host the semifinals on Friday and the championship game on Saturday. Since CMU is the No. 1 seed, the Mavericks are guaranteed to host over the weekend as long as they win in the quarterfinals.

About Chadron State
Chadron State was one of the biggest surprises in the 2022-23 season, as the Eagles were picked 14^th out of 15 teams in preseason but finished fifth in the RMAC standings a season ago. The Eagles didn't sneak up on quite as many people in 2023-24, as CSC was picked fifth in preseason but finished eighth.

Chadron got off to a solid start, winning five of their first six conference games. The Eagles have struggled down the stretch, however, as they will enter the RMAC Tournament having lost eight of their last 10 RMAC games, including losses to Colorado Christian, Western Colorado and New Mexico Highlands. The only two wins in that 10-game stretch were both over South Dakota Mines, which is what ended up lifting Chadron into the playoffs via the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Hardrockers.

Chadron State features two stars in guard Bryce Latimer and forward Josh Robinson. Latimer is the second-leading scorer in the RMAC at 19.0 points per game and scored a season-high 30 points in the previous meeting with Colorado Mesa. Robinson averages 15.0 points per game and is the RMAC's leading rebounder with 8.4 per game. Robinson had a 17-point, 13-rebound double-double against CMU on January 12.

Head Coach Shane Paben is in his fourth year at Chadron State. In his first year in 2020-21, Paben led Chadron State to the RMAC Tournament for the first time since 2011-12, and has now qualified the Eagles for the RMAC Tournament in three of his four seasons. Prior to taking over the Eagles, Paben turned Bellevue University in Bellevue, Nebraska into an NAIA powerhouse, taking the Bruins to 10 straight NAIA national tournaments. He reached the NAIA Sweet 16 on seven occasions and the NAIA Final Four (known as the Fab Four) twice.

The Mavericks are 40-11 all-time against Chadron State. Colorado Mesa has won 12 consecutive games in the series. When Chadron does win, it's typically been in Nebraska – the Eagles are 10-13 at home in the series compared to 1-26 in Grand Junction.

Tale Of The Tape
Here is how CMU and Chadron State stack up in major statistical categories:
 

RMAC Rank	Colorado Mesa	Category	Chadron State	RMAC Rank
1st	87.1	Scoring Offense	78.7	6th
4th	73.4	Scoring Defense	80.1	13th
2nd	+13.7	Scoring Margin	-1.4	8th
1st	50.4	Field Goal %	45.5	9th
1st	42.3	Opposing Field Goal %	47.4	12th
4th	36.2	3-Point %	34.1	13th
1st	11.6	3-Pointers Per Game	7.0	11th
9th	34.2	Opposing 3-Point %	31.6	1st
3rd	74.8	Free Throw %	71.1	13th
1st	38.8	Rebounds Per Game	37.7	3rd
1st	18.9	Assists Per Game	14.5	3rd
1st	4.0	Blocks Per Game	2.7	9th
6th	7.3	Steals Per Game	5.4	11th
2nd	14.29	TOs Forced Per Game	10.6	13th
15th	15.5	TOs Committed Per Game	11.3	2nd

As the regular season conference champions, the Mavericks have been dominant statistically, with the league's top scoring offense and field goal percentage and collecting the most rebounds, assists and blocks per game in the RMAC.

Chadron State has two potential edges against the Mavericks. The Eagles are holding opponents to just a 31 percent field goal percentage from three-point range, a significant stat given that CMU attempts by far the most threes in the conference. The Eagles will also look to win the turnover battle, as CSC commits just 11.3 per game while the Mavericks commit 15.5 per contest, the highest mark in the RMAC.