RAPID CITY, S.D. – Ben Henderson fired a career-high 31 points while the Mavericks scored a season-high 110 points this evening as the Colorado Mesa University men's basketball team claimed a 110-93 victory over South Dakota Mines at King Center.
The Mavs eclipsed the century mark for the third time this season with the win as the 110 points were also the ninth most in school history.
In addition to the new season-high in points, the Mavs also shot a season-best 68.6 percent from the field while going 48-for-70.
Colorado Mesa now sits at 19-8 (15-4 RMAC) with them matching last season's win total and are just one game away from a potential share of the RMAC regular season title. They have already locked up at least a second-place finish as well with Fort Lewis losing to CSU Pueblo tonight.
The Hardrockers fell to 9-18 (6-13 RMAC) with the loss with this this being the sixth time in a row they've fallen to the Mavs.
Prior to the Mavs breaking away in the second half and leading by as many as 19 points in the offensive-based game, both teams traded shots for a majority of the first half in tonight's contest with each team shooting over 55 percent.
There were eight lead changes and four ties during that time.
The Mavs shot 67.6 percent (23-for-34) in the first half alone while dominating the points in the paint category, 36-14. They finished the game in that category even better with a 78-24 advantage.
In the final three minutes of the first half Colorado Mesa was able to slightly break away before their second half surge with them outscoring the Hardrockers 14-8.
They would go into halftime with nine-point advantage, leading 54-45.
Ben Henderson and Wes Ball were the Mavs' top scorers in the first half with the pair combining for 30 points. Ball scored 14 of those points, all coming off the bench.
CMU continued where they left off in the second half building a 10-3 run through the first three minutes before leading by over 10 points the entire rest of the game.
The Mavs outscored the Hardrockers 56-48 in the second half while taking large advantage of 17 points off of turnovers and 30 from fastbreaks.
For Colorado Mesa, four different players finished in double figure scoring with Henderson's 31 leading the group.
Henderson shot 13-for-20 from the field while adding six rebounds.
Ty Allred added 23 points with eight rebounds and four steals while Ball chipped in 16 points.
Cohenj Gonzales also totaled 15 points on 7-for-8 shooting.
The Hardrockers shot 50.8 percent in the game while hitting 18 three-pointers for their best three-point shooting performance of the season.
Jason Lee led all scorers for South Dakota Mines with 38 points while Darren Wallace added 25.
The Mavs will play their final regular season game on Saturday now when they travel to Spearfish, South Dakota to take on Black Hills State at Donald E. Young Center. Game time is set for 3 p.m.
