DURANGO, Colo. — They're in.
It wasn't easy, but the No. 24 Colorado Mesa University women's basketball team secured its spot in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament next month with a hard-fought 78-71 victory over Fort Lewis College on Thursday in Durango.
Behind Olivia Reed Thyne's 14th double-double of the season, the Mavericks won their 11th straight game to move to 18-4, 13-2 in the RMAC. They maintained their two-game lead on Western Colorado, which won at Adams State. Black Hills State dropped back into third place after a last-second loss at Colorado School of Mines, and CSU Pueblo fell into fourth place after losing at home to CU-Colorado Springs.
For much of the game, the Skyhawks tried to defend Reed Thyne one-on-one in the low post, and the junior forward ended up hitting 15 of 26 shots and four of five free throws for 34 points, her second-highest scoring game of the season and her sixth with 30 or more points. She also grabbed 11 rebounds.
Despite Reed Thyne's dominance inside, the Skyhawks (6-17, 3-12 RMAC) hung with CMU until the final minutes of the game, although they never took the lead. The Mavericks defeated Fort Lewis 75-48 in a nonconference game in November.
It was tied twice in the first quarter, but Lauryn Deede hit a baseline jumper just before the end of the first quarter and the Mavericks rattled off the first seven points of the second. Reed Thyne put CMU up 10 with a layup midway through the quarter, but missed the bonus — CMU went only 6 of 11 at the free throw line in the first half.
The Mavericks held a seven-point edge at the half, built it to 10 on a pair of free throws by Kylie Kravig with less than 20 seconds remaining in the third, and then held on as the Skyhawks again started knocking down shots.
A driving layup by Livia Knapp cut CMU's lead to only four, 72-68, with 1:05 remaining, but Kravig, who finished with 14 points, buried a baseline jumper. Riley Hayes converted a pair of free throws with seven seconds left and Mykaela Moore added two more in the final second.
The Skyhawks tried to send help in the post in the second half, but Reed Thyne either kicked the ball back out to reset the offense, or used her post moves to still find her shot. Colorado Mesa, the top 3-point shooting team in the RMAC, took only seven 3-pointers the entire night, with Hayes, Moore and Macy Larsen each hitting one. Moore also reached double figures for CMU with 12.
After the uncharacteristic foul shooting in the first half, the Mavericks didn't miss in the second, hitting 17 of 17. They put the Skyhawks at the line only once in the entire second half, a miss, and outscored Fort Lewis by 20 points at the line, 23-3.
CMU out-rebounded Fort Lewis 37-30 and shot 47 percent from the field. The Skyhawks shot 54 percent from the field in the second half and 46 percent for the game.
Their spot in the playoffs secured, the Mavericks look to continue their undefeated 2025 slate at 1 p.m. on Saturday, facing New Mexico Highlands in Las Vegas, N.M. The Cowgirls handled Westminster 81-56 on Thursday and are riding a three-game winning streak and are in a three-way tie for fifth at 9-6 in conference play.
