PUEBLO, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Mavericks grabbed a season-high 17 offensive rebounds and recorded a season-high 13 steals while claiming a key 64-61 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference road win over the CSU Pueblo ThunderWolves on Thursday night here in Massari Arena.
 
The Mavericks converted the offensive rebounds into 19 second chance points and the turnovers into 23 more, allowing them to overcome a low 31.3 percent (20-64) shooting effort.
 
The victory was CMU's ninth straight over the Pack since 2019 and allowed them to break part of what was a multi-way-tie with the ThunderWolves for sixth place in the RMAC standings while improving to 11-7 overall and to 6-5 in the RMAC standings, good for a fifth place tie with UCCS, who they will play on Saturday afternoon at 3 o'clock in Colorado Springs, and Black Hills State, who the Mavs defeated on the road in overtime last Thursday.
 
The Mavericks have also gone 4-1 in their last five games, which have all been decided by a single possession, and are 6-1 in the 2025 calendar year.
 
The hosts, who shot 44.9 percent (22-49) from the field, fell to 10-9 overall and to 5-6 in the conference.  They were guilty of 21 total turnovers while CMU committed just 13.
 
The extra possessions and defensive prowess were especially key in the closing stages of the night as the Mavericks held the Pack without a bucket and to just two free throws in the final four-plus minutes to overcome a 59-55 deficit.
 
Will Mortimore finished with a season-high 19 points, also added a dozen rebounds to lead all players in both categories.
 
He also scored four of the Mavs' final five points, dunking the Mavs to 61-60 lead with 1:24 left before the ThunderWolves tied the game by making one of two free throws with 35.9 seconds left.
 
After retaining possession on a mid-court loose ball thanks to the alternating possession arrow, Mortimore then converted an offensive rebound, one of five he had in what was his fifth double-double of the year, for a putback lay-up to give the Mavs a 63-61 lead for good.

The Mavs then came up with two more defensive stops as Christopher Speller made one of two free throws in between to seal the win.
 
The free throw game also went the Mavs way as CMU shot 80.0 percent (20-25) from the line while the ThunderWolves shot just 50.0 percent (9-18) as both teams were whistled for 19 fouls.
 
Mortimore, a freshman from Maitland, Australia, was 5-for-7 from the line and shot 7-for-13 from the field.  He was joined in double-figures by Ty Allred, who finished with 12 points, including seven from the free throw line.  Allred also grabbed five rebounds and had a career-high five steals, the most of any Maverick this season.
 
Harvey White added ten points while Yaak Yaak had nine points and five rebounds while recording a pair of blocked shots off the bench.
 
CSU Pueblo was paced by 12 points from Armon Muldrew and 11 point efforts from Victor Lado and Jordan Blair off the bench.  De'Shaun Cooper also scored nine points and had seven rebounds.
 
The game was tight and featured nine lead changes and 13 ties as the Mavericks led for much of the first half before going into the break up, 31-26.
 
However, the Mavs were held to just two Yaak points in the first five minutes of the second half and fell behind before going on a 9-3 run to rebuild a 46-40 advantage with 11 ½ minutes to go.
 
The Pack then stunned CMU with a 10-2 run of their won to take a 50-48 lead with 9:06 left before eventually building their largest lead of the night, 60-55 with a Cooper free throw coming out of the 4-minute media timeout.
 
Momen's later, Speller converted a Mortimore steal into a Maverick bucket  before Allred came up with a steal.  The Maverick junior then hit two free throws to close the deficit to 60-59 with 2:38 left.
 
The Pack then missed two free throws of their own before Mortimore put in his aforementioned dunk while taking over the latter stages of the game.