DENTON, Texas – The No. 3 Colorado Mesa women's basketball team used suffocating defense and a strong shooting effort to advance to the NCAA South Central Region Semifinals after defeating sixth-seeded Lubbock Christian 80-45 this afternoon (Mar. 13) at Kitty Magee Arena.
Colorado Mesa (34-1) led 41-31 at the halftime break after making seven three-pointers in the first half. The Mavericks led all but 18 seconds in the half and benefited from 13 second chance points.
The Mavericks came out and absolutely dominated the third quarter of action. They limited Lubbock Christian to 3-for-13 shooting in the frame and just six total points. Meanwhile, Colorado Mesa scored 23 points in the quarter on 8-for-15 shooting from the field. They used an 11-0 run late in the third to take their lead to 27 points at 64-37.
The fourth quarter may have been better as Colorado Mesa limited the Chaps to just 20 percent from the field on 3-for-15 shooting. The Mavericks built the rebounding advantage to plus-22 to finish the game after a 14-7 edge in the final frame.
They finished with a 50-28 advantage on the glass and wound up with a 19-2 edge in second chance points. It was the sixth time this season that CMU has posted 50 rebounds in a game.
For the game, Lubbock Christian shot just 33.3 percent (19-for-57) from the field and 26.3 percent (5-for-19) from three. They shot just four free-throws in the game.
Colorado Mesa finished the game shooting 45.5 percent (30-for-66) from the field and nearly 40 percent from beyond the arc at 39.4 percent (13-for-33). They were 7-for-10 from the charity stripe.
D2CCA South Central Region Player of the Year
Olivia Reed Thyne led all scorers with 20 points and finished the double-double with 14 rebounds. She was 7-for-12 shooting from the field and 6-for-8 at the line.
Redshirt sophomore
Mason Rowland scored 19 points on 7-for-12 shooting from the field including 4-for-7 from beyond the arc.
Freshman
Hallie Clark added 13 points after burying three three-pointers including two in the first quarter of action.
Colorado Mesa got an outstanding effort off the bench from
Brooke Eyre as she finished with eight points and a career-high 16 rebounds including seven on the offensive end.
Lubbock Christian's All-Region First Team selection Kennedy Chappell finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds to pace the Chaps. Meg Meakins led LCU with 13 points.
The Mavericks will play the winner of second-seeded West Texas A&M and sixth-seeded Texas-Tyler at 5:00pm (CDT) on Saturday evening. Stay tuned to CMUMavericks.com for ways to follow along with all the action.
