GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The Colorado Mesa University men's basketball team used a dominant opening run to lead them to a strong victory this afternoon as they defeated the Chadron State College Eagles by a score of 86-68 at Brownson Arena.
The Mavericks led for almost the entire game 40 minutes of the game with this being their sixth time winning by double digits this season.
With the win the Mavs bounce back from their loss earlier this week with them now sitting at 11-7 (7-3 RMAC) and dropping the Eagles to 4-14 (2-8 RMAC). Colorado Mesa continues to stay in a tie for third place in the conference standings.
In addition, CMU is now 6-1 at home this season while also being 28-1 at home against the Eagles, who have not won in Grand Junction since 1992.
The Mavs used an offensive onslaught to build their lead early in the game with them jumping to a 22-2 lead through the opening seven minutes.
The Eagles wouldn't reach double digit scoring either until about nine minutes in.
By the end of the first half the Mavs led 44-28 with them reaching a lead as high as 27 points in the whole game.
Colorado Mesa used runs of 10-2 and 7-0 in the second half to maintain to their lead while never having the game get any closer than a 15-point margin.
Ty Allred recorded 21-points and 11-rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season while leading the Mavs on 8-for-15 shooting. Allred shot 50 percent from three-point range as well going 5-for-10.
Three other Mavs also finished in double figures as Harvey White scored 16 points while Clayton Jewell and Wes Ball tallied 12 each.
Ben Henderson recorded nine assists for the second time this season with that mark being the most of any Maverick in Head Coach Mike Dunlap's two seasons with the Mavs.
The Mavs shot 53.3 percent (32-60) from the field and were 12-for-26 (46.2 percent) from 3-point territory. They also made all ten of their free throws.
They fared even better in the rebounding category, grabbing 40 boards compared to the Eagles' 25, to own a +15 advantage.
The Eagles were 27-for-30 (90.0 percent) from the line as a team but shot just 32.7 percent (17-52) from the field.
Jadon Cool scored 19 points, making 14 of 15 of his free throws, to lead Chadron State. He was just 2-for-10 from the field.
Isaiah Randolph and Mack Keighran both added 13 points for the Eagles.
The Mavs will stay at home for two more games this next week as they host CSU Pueblo and UCCS next Thursday and Saturday. Thursday's game will serve as the Mavs' Blizzard in Brownson with the theme being a white-out, while Saturday's game will be Jersey Day and feature a Nikola Jokic autograph jersey prize drawing. Tickets can be purchased online for the games at cmumavericks.com/tickets.
