The No. 3 Colorado Mesa women's basketball team advanced to the NCAA South Central Region Semifinals and will take on the Texas-Tyler Patriots at 4:00pm MDT on Saturday afternoon. The Mavericks will meet up with the Patriots for the second time in three seasons with both coming in the region semifinals.   
 
LAST TIME OUT
Colorado Mesa defeated Lubbock Christian 80-45 in their opening round matchup of the NCAA South Central Regional after outscoring the Chaps 39-14 in the second half. The Mavericks made 13 three pointers which tied a season-high for makes.
 
Olivia Reed Thyne led all scorers with 20 points and completed her double-double with 14 rebounds in 37 minutes of floor time. Teammate Mason Rowland chipped in 19 points.
 
Bench play was big as Brooke Eyre finished with a career-high 16 rebounds including seven offensive caroms.
 
REGIONAL HISTORY
Colorado Mesa is making their 10^th NCAA Tournament appearance with nine of those coming during the Taylor Wagner era. This is their third straight appearance and will be taking on UT Tyler for the second time in three years.
 
The Mavericks are 8-8 in those 10 appearances with five wins coming in 2013 and 2014. In 2013, the Mavericks made their lone trip to the NCAA Elite Eight that took place in San Antonio, Texas.
 
The Mavericks first tournament appearance came in 2002 when they hosted the North Central Regional in Brownson Arena but fell to a hot shooting South Dakota State team 76-63.
 
30-FOR-30
With their win on Saturday against Black Hills State, the Colorado Mesa women's basketball team won their 30^th game of the season for the third time under the direction of head coach Taylor Wagner. He also led the Mavericks to 30-win seasons in 2012-13 where the Mavericks finished the season in the Elite Eight and in 2013-14 where the season ended in the Sweet Sixteen.
 
With two more wins this season, the Mavericks would set a school record for wins in a season. The most the program has won came during the 2012-13 season when they went 31-2 and won the NCAA South Central Region Tournament.
 
The 2009-10 Fort Lewis Skyhawk team holds the record for wins in the RMAC with 35.
 
MORE HISTORY
Colorado Mesa made more history on Saturday with their win over Black Hills State. The Mavericks became the first team since 1995-96 that finished the RMAC regular season undefeated at 20-0. They become the sixth team in RMAC history to accomplish the feat but the first in 30 years.
 
Nebraska-Kearney (16-0) was the last RMAC school to accomplish the feat along with Fort Hays State (12-0) in 1990-91 and Adams State (16-0) in 1984-85. The Grizzlies accomplished the feat in 1981-82 along with Regis in the same season when they only played divisional opponents and went 8-0.
 
HOW HIGH CAN SHE GO
Olivia Reed Thyne has broken records left and right this season but the biggest question remaining is how high on some of these lists can she go. The Colorado All-Time marks are what's left and the scoring one may be out of reach at this point as she needs 274 points to move up to second with only 6 possible games left in her career. Despite the records that have been broken, the goal remains the same…win.
 
COLORADO ALL-TIME SCORING LIST

1. Becky Hammon, Colorado State, 1995-99, 2,740
2. Alisha Little, CSU Pueblo/Northern Colorado, 2019-25, 2,621
3. Olivia Reed Thyne, Colorado Mesa, 2022-present, 2,367
4. Brittany Spear, Colorado, 2007-11, 2,185
5. McKenna Hofschild, Colorado State, 2020-24, 2,162

 
COLORADO ALL-TIME REBOUNDING LIST

1. Alisha Little, CSU Pueblo/Northern Colorado, 2019-25, 1,382
2. Olivia Reed Thyne, Colorado Mesa, 2022-present, 1,375
3. Zoe Tomlinson, Colorado College, 2021-25, 1,281
4. Holly Roberts, MSU Denver, 1989-93, 1,267
5. Dominique Skeehan, Adams State, 1981-85, 1,256

 
A new list to look at is the active career points leaders in all of NCAA. Three of the six active 2,000 point scorers reside in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.
 
ACTIVE NCAA DIVISION II SCORING LEADERS

1. Natalie Bremer, Minnesota State, 2,371
2. Olivia Reed Thyne, Colorado Mesa, 2,367
3. Emma Miller, Minnesota-Crookston, 2,235
4. Asher Cai, Central Washington, 2,209
5. Lydia Haack, Concordia, St. Paul, 2,091
6. Caroline Martin, North Georgia, 2,002

SCOUTING UT TYLER
The Patriots started the season off a little rocky dropping games to RMAC foes Colorado Christian, Adams State and Fort Lewis but started steering the ship in the right direction when the conference schedule started. They knocked off No. 6 West Texas A&M in yesterday's opening round of the regional after falling two previous times to the Buffs during the season.
 
Rebecca Alvidrez leads the Patriots from the sidelines and has many ties to both the RMAC and head coach Taylor Wagner. Alvidrez was the head coach at Adams State in 2013-14 and spent time as a coach at Otero Junior College while Wagner was the head women's coach for the Rattlers.
 
Leila Davis leads a trio of UT Tyler players that average 10 or more points. She averages 12.7 points and 5.5 rebounds per game including five straight games where she reached double figures in scoring. She had a game-high 19 in the Patriots win over WT in round one.

THE STAFF
Taylor Wagner enters his 14th season at Colorado Mesa in 2024-25, the second-longest tenure in program history. Coach Wagner reached his 300^th win at Colorado Mesa on Saturday November 22 with a 102-53 win over Alaska Fairbanks in Salt Lake City. The 300^th win also made him the all-time winningest coach in Colorado Mesa women's basketball history eclipsing the 299 wins Steve Kirkham collected from 1988-to-2004.  
 
Wagner made the NCAA Tournament in each of his first three years as coach, including runs to the Elite Eight in 2013 and the Sweet Sixteen in 2014. He has led his team to nine total NCAA Tournament appearances ('13, '14, '15, '19, '20, '22, '24, '25, '26).
 
During his first season, Wagner took a team that finished the previous season 13-14 and turned it into a 31-2 team that reached the NCAA Elite Eight, defeating Midwestern State 69-65 in front of 1,975 fans in Brownson Arena to secure the South Central Region title.
 
That Mavericks team set an RMAC record for the most consecutive regular-season victories at 25, spanning from Nov. 8, 2013 to Feb. 28, 2014. Wagner won his 100th game at the helm of the Mavericks on Feb. 19, 2016 against Chadron State. It took him just 118 games to reach the mark.
 
COLORADO MESA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL ALL-TIME COACHING WINS
Taylor Wagner, 328-91
Steve Kirkham, 299-157
Timi Brown, 58-79
Jack Scott, 49-59
Roger Walters, 38-42
 
Assistant coach Hannah Pollart is starting her 10th season as the Mavs' top assistant coach, working primarily with the post players. Pollart played one season for the Mavericks, helping CMU reach the South Central Regional championship game in 2013-14. She averaged 7.2 points and 6.1 rebounds.
 
Before transferring to CMU, Pollart played two seasons at Northeastern Junior College, where she was an All-Region IX player and an NJCAA Academic All-American. She played her junior season at Cameron University.
 
Jaylyn Duran is entering her second season on the coaching staff. Duran played at CMU from 2015-2019, averaging 12.6 points for her career, including 18.6 points as a senior, when she was the RMAC Player of the Year and a WBCA honorable mention All-America selection.
 
A CMU graduate with a degree in Kinesiology/ Fitness & Health Promotion, Duran scored 1,352 points, eighth in program history, and is first all-time in 3-point field goals made (265).
 
THE DEAN OF THE RMAC
Colorado Mesa head coach Taylor Wagner not only surpassed 300 wins in his career this season, but he became the RMAC's all-time wins leader within the conference. Wagner passed legendary Regis Head Coach Linda Raunig for career RMAC wins when he passed her 226 RMAC wins on January 10 with the 89-49 win over Adams State in Alamosa.
 
Below are a pair of lists detailing where Wagner sits in the hierarchy of RMAC women's basketball coaches:
 
Career RMAC Wins

1. Taylor Wagner, Colorado Mesa, 2012-current, 243
2. Linda Raunig, Regis, 1996-2015, 226
3. Tanya Haave, MSU Denver, 2010-25, 213
4. Steve Kirkham, Colorado Mesa/UCCS, 1988-04, 10, 179
5. Kip Drown, CSU Pueblo, 2005-15, 141

 
Career Wins while in the RMAC

1. Taylor Wagner, Colorado Mesa, 2012-current, 328
2. Linda Raunig, Regis, 1996-15, 323
3. Steve Kirkham, Colorado Mesa/UCCS, 1988-04,10, 305
4. Tanya Haave, MSU Denver, 2010-25, 288
5. Brittany Simpson, Colorado School of Mines, 2012-current, 252

COLORADO MESA TURNS 100
The CMU Century Celebration stands as the cornerstone of Colorado Mesa University's year-long centennial celebration. This ambitious initiative unites our community in honoring a rich heritage while boldly envisioning the next hundred years of academic excellence.

Led by the Steering Committee and six specialized sub-committees, we're orchestrating a transformative experience that will resonate through generations. Each committee brings unique expertise to create an unforgettable commemoration of our past, present and future.
 
To learn more about Colorado Mesa's 100-year celebration, visit cmucentury.com
 
UP NEXT
With a win, the Mavericks will move into the NCAA South Central Region Championship game for the first time since the 2013-14 season. They would play the winner of top seeded Texas Woman's and fifth-seeded UCCS on Monday at 7pm (6pm MDT).
 
A loss would end the season for the Mavericks.