GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Talk about being in unfamiliar territory: The No. 23/25 Colorado Mesa women's basketball team was down 13 points to Western Colorado in the second quarter Saturday in the regular-season finale at Brownson Arena.
Then Mykaela Moore happened.
The junior guard provided the offensive spark the Mavericks needed in the first half to climb back into it, hitting back-to-back 3-pointers to cut the deficit to seven and spark CMU to a 56-41 victory.
After scoring only five points in the first quarter, the Mavericks (23-4, 18-2 RMAC) regrouped to win their 16th straight game. As the No. 1 seed in next week's RMAC Tournament, the Mavericks will play New Mexico Highlands at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Brownson Arena in the quarterfinals. Should CMU win that game, the Mavs will host the semifinals on Friday and championship game on Saturday.
Those two 3s by Moore were part of her career-high 18 points.
"Personally, they were sagging off me a lot and completely helping on Olivia (Reed Thyne) and it took me a whole quarter to figure it out," Moore said. "As soon as I figured it out, you've just got to make a play when the opportunity comes. That kind of changed the game plan a little bit."
At times the game was like a battle royal, with physical play under the basket, and definitely had a playoff atmosphere.
"This is what it's going to be like from here on out in these games," CMU coach Taylor Wagner said. "They'll be close. Everyone's playing for a season, and whether that's to get in the NCAA Tournament, it's postseason. You know it's going to be a battle and I think we've proven to ourselves that we can win tough games and when teams throw different schemes at us defensively, we can adjust."
Facing the double-digit deficit, Moore hit a jumper, then a corner 3-pointer. After a defensive rebound, she found Lauryn Deede in the paint for a pocket-pass layup. Later in the quarter, Moore dished the ball to Macy Larsen for a second-chance 3, and suddenly, the Mavericks were within five points.
Larsen hit another 3 in the final two minutes of the first half to cut the deficit to two, but the Mountaineers took a 28-21 lead into halftime.
That the Mavericks were down only seven at halftime was a testament to how they made adjustments on the fly after Reed Thyne was scoreless in the first half, attempting only four shots because of the defense collapsing all around her.
In the second half, it was all CMU.
The Mavericks' defense gave up only 13 second-half points, outscoring the Mountaineers 19-6 in the third quarter and 16-7 in the fourth.
CMU scored the first seven points of the third quarter to tie the game at 28-28, and Reed Thyne scored her first basket of the game with a hook shot to give the Mavericks their first lead of the game. They didn't trail again.
Western Colorado (20-7, 15-5 RMAC) needed the win to get into the conversation for the South Central Regional — the Mountaineers are not in the top 10 — and came out looking like a team determined to do just that. Western will be the No. 2 seed in next week's RMAC Tournament.
"They were ready for us but we responded. The second half we hold them to 13 points, the defense was on point, the offense started to pick up," Wagner said. "Credit to these girls for not giving up at halftime and hanging their head. They came out and fought that second half. It was really fun to coach and see the defense play like that. It was one of the best halves we've ever had in this gym."
In that third quarter, the Mavericks' defense held Western scoreless for the first five minutes and then for another four-minute span until Ivey Schmidt made a jumper with nine seconds left in the quarter.
The fourth quarter was much of the same, with the Mavericks more active on defense, forcing jump balls when Western put the ball on the floor in the paint, and controlling the boards.
After not even attempting a free throw in the first half, CMU went 11 of 12 from the line in the second half and scored 21 points off 21 Western Colorado turnovers.
Kylie Kravig had 11 points and four assists in her final regular-season home game. Reed Thyne scored eight points with 10 rebounds, the first time she's been under double figures in scoring all season.
As the winning streak has continued to grow, Wagner has continued to preach looking at only the game at hand.
"It's hard to compare team to team because everybody's different, circumstances are different," Wagner said. "I love this team. It's so fun to be around them. Great people, they work hard, they're coachable. Everything off the court is just on point with them. That's not to say I've never loved another team, but we're in the moment now, so I really love these guys and it's just fun.
"They're competitors, and I know I coach hard, so I really appreciate it when those girls just get after it and they leave everything out on the floor."
