GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The Colorado Mesa University Men's Basketball Team battled back from an 18-point deficit this evening as they worked their way to a come from behind 87-84 victory over the MSU Billings Yellowjackets in the final game of the Maverick Thanksgiving Classic at Brownson Arena.
Colorado Mesa capped off a perfect weekend in their home tournament with the win as they went 2-0 while now improving to 3-3 overall on the season. They also handed MSU Billings just their second loss of the year with them moving to 7-2.
MSU Billings was able to overcome an early deficit in their win yesterday against Western Colorado before seeing that same fate be bestowed upon them by the Mavericks tonight.
The Mavs trailed for over 20 minutes in the contest with them being down for almost 15 of those minutes in the first half before outscoring the Yellowjackets by 18 points in the second half.
While being in a deficit for almost the entire first half, Colorado Mesa instead jumped out of the gate with an 8-0 run in the opening two minutes with them hitting two three-pointers in that span.
The Yellowjackets responded not soon after and took over the lead in the 14th minute and led the rest of the half with them hitting six three-pointers in a five-minute stretch to grow that lead. They outscored the Mavs 24-6 during those five minutes with their highest lead of 18 being achieved.
Colorado Mesa threatened to come back, going on a 11-4 run, but the Yellowjackets closed out the half making four of their last eight shots and adding three from the free throw line to lead by 15.
Points from turnovers proved to be costly as well in the half with the Yellowjackets owning the advantage in that column at 23-8.
Despite MSU Billings owning the strong lead to open play in the second half, Colorado Mesa responded heavily with them tying the game up after just seven minutes of play.
They outscored the Yellowjackets 22-6 to open those seven minutes with them seeing the hot-shooting going in their favor hitting four-three pointers. Both Cohenj Gonzales and Harvey White combined for 15 of those points scored, including three three-pointers from Gonzales himself.
Overtaking the lead in the 13th minute, Colorado Mesa trailed just two times the rest of the game with them clinging to a single-digit lead.
They led by two points with two minutes left to play and reached a lead as high as four points in the final 30 seconds before forcing the Yellowjackets to miss their final two shot attempts and only allowing two points total from free throws.
Additionally, the Mavs only turned the ball over three times in the second half with them shooting 50 percent from the field compared to MSU Billings' 35.5 percent.
Cohenj Gonzales recorded a career-high 27 points in the game with the junior transfer going 10-for-16 from the field, including a 5-for-9 mark on three pointers.
Harvey White added 17 points with both Ty Allred and Clayton Jewell scoring 16 a piece to bolster the offense. The duo of Allred and Jewell also grabbed nine rebounds each with Colorado Mesa owning the rebound advantage by just one board at 32-31.
The Mavs missed just one shot from the charity stripe with them going a staggering 21-for-22 and making 17 of those shots in the second half alone.
Beginning RMAC play now, the Mavs will head to Colorado Springs and Lakewood this coming week as they take on UCCS and Colorado Christian University on Dec. 4 and 6. Game times are set for 7 P.M. on Thursday and 3 P.M. on Saturday. Streaming found on the RMAC Network.
