by By Brian Kortz, WNMU Athletics
SILVER CITY, N.M. – Colorado Mesa University came through with clutch baskets when needed and held the Western New Mexico University women’s basketball team to 14 made field goals in claiming the 64-51 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference victory Saturday night.
CMU (19-4, 16-3 RMAC) played solid defense through the first 20 minutes holding WNMU (13-10, 10-9 RMAC) to a 21.4 (6-28) percent clip. The Lady Mustangs had their defense working as well allowing just a 35.5 percent (11-31) effort.
The Lady Mavericks jumped out to a 4-0 lead over the first one-plus minute. WNMU answered back with Ashley Mitchell (Navajo Nation) triggering a 6-0 run with a jumper. Mitchell then added a fastbreak layup and a jumper by Stephanie Moore had WNMU ahead, 6-4, at the 16:50 mark.
The Lady Mustangs would again go in front by two at 11-9 on a three-pointer by RaTanya Newsome.
CMU came back with a 12-0 run to open a 21-11 lead with eight minutes to go before halftime. They would hold the lead in that range the rest of the half taking a 29-18 lead into halftime.
Newsome had seven for WNMU in the first half. Laurel Kasel led CMU and all-scorers with 11 points in the first 20 minutes.
In the second half, CMU built a lead of 13 in the early going before WNMU came back to trim the deficit to seven.Stephanie Douthit connected on a three-pointer at the 11:20 mark leaving WNMU down, 40-33. After another run by the Lady Mavericks, WNMU whittled the lead back to six with just over seven to play on a jumper in the paint by Moore leaving CMU in front, 45-39.
A few minutes later WNMU would come back again to get to within six a couple of times, first on free throws by Ashley Mitchell (Fort Defiance, AZ/Window Rock High School) and then a jumper by Ashley Witherspoon with 4:32 to play, but that would be as close as they would get.
The Lady Mavericks closed the game on a 12-5 run to take the victory.
Mitchell ended up leading all-scorers with 21 points, as she capitalized on 10 foul shots. She also pulled down a team-high eight rebounds. Newsome tallied 13 points, four assists and two steals. CMU was led by 17 from Kasel and 16 from Leanndra Gilbert.
CMU made 43.4 percent (23-53), were 6-of-16 (37.5) from three and 12-of-13 (92.3) at the foul line. WNMU was held to a 25.9 percent (14-54) clip, went 5-of-12 (41.7) from three and 18-of-22 at the foul line (81.8).
WNMU held the advantage on second-chance (11-7) and fastbreak (4-2).
With the loss, WNMU is now on the outside looking in on the RMAC Tournament standings. The Lady Mustangs are in ninth, a half-game back of Regis, Fort Lewis and MSU Denver all tied for sixth. They remain just a game back of Black Hills State for fifth.
WNMU will hit the road this coming week as they will play at Colorado Christian University Friday night at 5:30 p.m.
