GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Looking to start another promising season for the Mavericks, the Colorado Mesa University Men's Basketball Team begins their 2025-26 season this upcoming weekend as they open play in Texas at the D2 Conference Challenge.
Playing two South Central Region opponents in their trip to the Lone Star State, the Mavericks take on both #3 Dallas Baptist and St. Edward's this weekend for the fifth year in a row.
Colorado Mesa first takes on Dallas Baptist on Friday at 4 P.M. before closing their weekend on Saturday against St. Edward's at 4 P.M. as well. Both games will take place at Burg Center which is the home court of Dallas Baptist.
This year marks the second season under the helm of Head Coach Mike Dunlap who previously took over the program in the spring of 2024 and led the Mavs to a 19-10 record a year ago. They reached as far as the quarterfinals in the RMAC Tournament while finishing third in the conference.
THIS YEAR'S TEAM
Having a mix of new and old faces coming back, the Mavs have six returners on the squad this year while welcoming in seven new players.
Six of those new seven players are all transfers while just one comes in as a true freshman.
Of those transfers the Mavs have added the group of Kap Laila, Cohenj Gonzales, Yanis Mahoundo, Wes Ball, Ben Henderson and Clayton Jewell. Everyone in that group comes in from two-year schools with Jewell being the one exception in him transferring in from NAIA school, Oklahoma City University.
For each of the two-year transfers all of them were All-Region performers last season at their respective institutions.
Mason Farr is the lone freshman on the team this year after the Mavericks boasted eight of them last season.
On the returning side, the Mavs bring back three main stay players for the team in starters Ty Allred, Mason Honeyman and Harvey White with each of them appearing in all 29 games last season and starting 22-plus games.
Prior to the start of this season Allred and White were selected to the All-RMAC Preseason Team with Allred being the only All-RMAC player to return after being selected to the First Team in 2024-25.
Joining that trio as the other returners include Jaylen Pitman, Tevin Riehl and Ben Kaye with each of them seeing time off the bench. Pitman leads that group appearing in all 29 games with eight starts.
In addition to the new players, the Mavs also added a new coach this season in Eli Scott who joined prior to the start of the fall semester. Scott will make his coaching debut this year after previously playing under Head Coach Dunlap at Loyola Marymount University and professionally overseas.
IN THE POLLS
Coming into this year the Mavs are receiving votes in the NABC Preseason Poll with them being one of six schools from the South Central Region to be recognized. In addition to CMU from the RMAC, Colorado School of Mines and Black Hills State are also ranked in the preseason with Mines earning the #10 spot and Fort Lewis coming in at the #17 spot.
In the RMAC Preseason Poll, CMU was voted to finish third in the conference out of 15 teams. They earned 158 points in that poll with one first-place vote, three second-place votes and six third-place votes coming their way. Black Hills State earned the #1 spot with 183 points and 10 of the first-place votes.
THIS WEEKEND'S FORMAT
This weekend will feature the D2 Conference Challenge, hosted this year by Dallas Baptist University, and have the Mavs facing off against both Dallas Baptist University and St. Edward's University.
The D2 Conference Challenge is a four-team scheduling agreement between CMU and Colorado Christian from the RMAC and Dallas Baptist and St. Edward's from the Lone Star to begin each season. For the 11th time in the last 12 seasons, these four programs will gather at one school's campus for each of the RMAC schools and Lone Star schools to play one another.
The significance of these games is also large as they are games that can have implications for the NCAA Tournament. For those unfamiliar with the Division II postseason process, the RMAC and Lone Star Conference are competing directly against one another for the eight South Central Region qualifying spots in the NCAA Tournament, so any head-to-head results over LSC schools can pay big dividends when comparing resumes at the end of the season.
In last year's D2 Conference Challenge the Mavs went 0-2 with an initial 94-65 loss to St. Edward's before closing their stay falling to 92-69 to DBU.
ABOUT DBU
Playing twice already this season, Dallas Baptist is currently 0-2 to start their year after suffering a pair of losses at the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic in the first weekend of this month.
In their two games they were defeated by other nationally ranked teams in #13 Michigan Tech and #2 Washburn.
Dallas Baptist was a NCAA National Semifinalist last season going 34-5 and winning the NCAA South Central Region Tournament. They fell to Cal State Dominguez Hills in that National Semifinals game while reaching the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back years.
They return eight of the players from last year's squad as they will look to make that post season push again this year. In the Lone Star Conference preseason poll they were picked first to win the conference.
Offensively, the pair of Drew Calderon and TJ Thomas have paced the Patriots so far this season as Calderon has averaged 15.0 points per game with Kahn averaging 14.5 to follow closely behind. Xavion Brown has been the rebound leader at 4.5 per game.
As a team, they average 73.5 points per game while giving up 82.0 in return through their small sample size. They are shooting 37.9 % from the field, while averaging 59 % from the free throw line.
The Patriots will face off with Colorado Christian on Saturday following Friday's game.
ABOUT ST. EDWARD'S
St. Edward's has played three times this season so far as they opened their year in the first week of the month at the CCA DII Canadian Tip-Off Classis. While in Canada, they went 3-0 on the weekend with lopsided wins over Western Washington and #18 Central Washington, while beating Simon Fraser University as well.
Coming into this year the Hilltoppers were picked to finish fourth in the Lone Star Conference.
At the end of last season the Hilltoppers qualified for the NCAA South Central Regional with them dropping out in the first round after falling to Midwestern State 102-72.
This season they have been led by the duo of Blake Nielsen and Ryder Bradley who have been their top two scorers. Nielsen, who was a preseason player to watch for the conference, currently averages 19.5 points per game with Bradley averaging 13.7.
Beyond the two five players on the team are averaging over five boards a game with them owning 132 total as a squad.
The team has averaged 74 points per game so far this season while limiting opponents to 61.0. They are shooting 39.2% from the field while averaging 63.3% on the free throw line.
HOW TO WATCH
Streaming will occur on a pay-to-watch plan with video coming via FloCollege.
UP NEXT
Following this weekend the Mavs will to Durango on Nov. 21 and 22 when they take part in the Skyhawks Hardwood Classis, hosted by Fort Lewis College. Games will take place in Whalen Gymnasium for the Friday, Saturday split with Colorado Mesa taking on both Lubbock Christian University and Western New Mexico University.
