Women's Basketball Wins Fourth Straight, Defeats Colorado Mesa 67-66 at Home

Women's Basketball Wins Fourth Straight, Defeats Colorado Mesa 67-66 at Home | https://gothunderwolves.com/

By Press release submission

Jan 2, 2023

Women's Basketball Wins Fourth Straight, Defeats Colorado Mesa 67-66 at Home

The Colorado State University Pueblo women's basketball team returned to action following a 14-day break for the Christmas holiday here Friday afternoon by using a strong third quarter en route to posting a hard-fought 67-66 victory over Colorado Mesa University in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action at Massari Arena.

With the win, CSU Pueblo improves to 8-4 overall and 5-1 in the RMAC, while Colorado Mesa falls to 2-10 overall and 1-8 in the league. The win kept the ThunderWolves in second place in the league standings.

Senior guard Jalen Long (Moreno Valley, Calif./Eastern Arizona College) led the way for the Wolves with a season-high 15 points off the bench. Long was 5-for-8 from the field, including a 5-for-7 effort from the 3-point line. In addition to Long, sophomore forward Daeja Johnson (Queen Creek, Ariz./Casteele) added 13 points and graduate student forward Charisse Fairley (Colorado Springs, Colo./Fresno State) posted her first double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

After the two teams played to a 30-all tie at the half, CSUP would shoot 50 percent from the field and 67 percent from the 3-point line in the third quarter to turn a tie game into a 54-47 lead after three quarters. Johnson scored nine of her 13 points in the quarter.

Mesa scored the first four points of the third quarter and led 37-33 following a trey from Tia Slade with 7:53 left in the period. That trey by Slade seemed to ignite the Pack as they responded with a 19-5 run over the next four-plus minutes to push out to a 52-42 lead with 3:31 left in the period. The run began with a trey from Fairley and was capped by a trey from Johnson.

The Mavs, though, would score four straight points to drop the Pack's lead to 52-46, before sophomore guard Landri Hudson (Aurora, Colo./Wyoming) made a lay-up with 34 seconds left to push the Pack's lead back out to 54-46. Mesa used a free throw by Kylie Kravig to cut CSUP's lead to 54-47 heading into the final period.

Mesa would mount a comeback in the final quarter as they scored eight the first eight points of the period to retake the lead at 55-54. On the ensuing possession by the Pack, Long drilled her fourth trey of the game to help CSUP retake the lead at 57-55 with 7:11 remaining.

From that point, the Pack used a 5-0 run to retake the lead at 60-57 with 5:22 left. Mesa, though, responded with a 7-4 run to force the eighth and final tie of the game at 64 with 2:50 remaining in the contest.

Long would hit her fifth and final trey with 2:23 left to take a 67-64 lead and after Olivia Reed brought Mesa within a point at 67-66 on her lay-up with 1:12 left, the Pack's defense would keep the Mavs off the scoreboard over the final 67 seconds to seal its fourth consecutive victory.

The two teams combined for 33 points in the first quarter as CSUP led 17-16 after the opening 10 minutes of action. Long and Fairley combined for 11 points in the quarter.

Mesa would outscore the Pack, 14-13, in the second quarter to force a 30-all tie at the half.

Reed paced Mesa with a game-high 24 points and 11 rebounds, while Slade added a double-double of 19 points and 13 rebounds. Kravig added eight points and 11 assists in the loss.

For the game, CSUP was outshot, 41.3 to 37.1 percent from the field, but the Pack was 14-for-34 (41.2 percent) from the 3-point line in the win, while Mesa was just 7-for-22 (31.8 percent) from long distance.

Mesa kept the game close thanks to a 50-31 edge on the boards, including a 17-8 advantage on the offensive glass.

The Pack forced Mesa into 15 turnovers that led to eight points for CSUP, while CSUP had nine turnovers and they were strong at the free throw line in the win as they were 7-for-9 (77.8 percent) at the line, while Mesa was 7-for-11 (63.8 percent) at the line.

CSU Pueblo will look to make it five consecutive victories as they host Westminster (Utah) College for a 2 p.m. game on Saturday, Dec. 31 at Massari Arena. Westminster picked up a 55-51 win on Friday at New Mexico Highlands.