CHADRON, Neb. — The Colorado Mesa men's basketball team's bid for a fourth straight last-second victory came up a few seconds short Saturday afternoon in a 69-67 loss at Chadron State.
The loss snapped CMU's seven-game winning streak, but it wasn't determined until the final ticks of the clock.
Down nine points with only 1:45 left in regulation and struggling mightily from the 3-point line, the Mavericks found another way. Christopher Speller hit the front end of a one-and-one with 56 seconds remaining and the Mavs' defense forced a bad inbounds pass, which Harvey White snatched up and laid in off the glass with 41 seconds left.
That cut it to 66-60. After two Chadron State free throws pushed it to an eight-point game, Yaak Yaak tipped in a miss. Again, the Mavs' inbounds defense caused a turnover, this time forcing a 5-second call, giving CMU the ball under its own basket.
Allred, who finished with 18 points, hit a layup with 13 seconds left and CMU stopped the clock with a foul.
Chadron' Julio Phipps missed the front end of the one-and-one and Will Mortimore fought for the rebound. A timeout allowed the Mavs to set up the offense, which consisted of a cross-court inbounds pass from in front of CMU's bench to Allred, who immediately swished a 3-pointer with two seconds remaining, cutting the deficit to only one, 68-67.
Another quick foul put Phipps back at the line with 1.7 seconds left, where he made the first, then missed the second. Allred rebounded the ball and tried a shot in a crowd from the opposite lane, which came up short.
Allred's late 3-pointer was one of only four the Mavs made in 26 attempts in a rough shooting day from the perimeter, but Colorado Mesa's defense kept the Eagles off balance. CMU forced 13 turnovers that led to 15 points. Chadron State made only six 3-pointers and shot 46.7 percent from the field, just a bit better than CMU's 43.8 percent clip. Inside the 3-point line, though, the Mavericks shot 63 percent, making 24 of 38, with 34 points in the paint.
Until Allred's latest clutch 3, the Mavericks had missed 12 straight attempts from beyond the arc in the second half.
The nine-point lead in the final two minutes was the biggest either team had the entire game — CMU led by seven after going on a 12-0 run in the first half. Down 11-6, Yaak went inside for a bucket, followed by back-to-back 3-pointers from Austin Thyne and Allred, then Yaak added a short jumper for an 18-11 lead at the 11:56 mark.
During that scoring run, Chadron turned the ball over twice and White blocked a 3-point attempt as CMU's full-court pressure got the Eagles sped up in the half-court.
At the midway point of the conference season, CMU (11-7) and Chadron State (9-9) are in a four-way tie for sixth place at 5-5 in the RMAC, but with the unbalanced schedule, the Eagles don't play a return game at Brownson in the second half. The Mavericks had won the past 13 games against Chadron State, dating to the 2014-15 season.
The Eagles led by only two, 35-33, at halftime after Speller hit a short turnaround jumper in the lane just before the horn. Speller finished with seven points, three rebounds, two assists and three steals. Yaak scored 17 points with six rebounds and two blocks and Mortimore added nine points, four boards and two steals.
Colorado Mesa opens the second half of conference play back on the road next week, at CSU Pueblo on Thursday night and at CU-Colorado Springs on Saturday afternoon.
