By Jordan Long
The Colorado Mesa Mavericks Men’s basketball team is headed back to the Division 2 Basketball Tournament. They won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) for the second year in a row. Let’s take a look back at how this happened.
In 2020, Colorado Mesa went 21-10. They defeated Colorado School of Mines to win the RMAC Basketball Tournament for the first time since 2010. This earned them a spot in the Division 2 NCAA Tournament as the 8th seed. They were on their way to Canyon, Texas to face #1 seed West Texas A&M. Unfortunately, the NCAA Division 2 Basketball Tournament was canceled due to the COVID19 Pandemic, ending their year.
This season, Colorado Mesa had a target on its’ back since they were the defending RMAC champions. They cruised through the regular season with a 19-1 conference record. Colorado Mesa’s only loss was to Western Colorado University on January 30th. Colorado Mesa was outscored both halves and lost 78-72. Colorado Mesa ended up as the #1 seed in the RMAC Basketball Tournament.
In the RMAC Tournament, they knocked off Chadron State College 67-52 and beat Adams State 78-66 to reach the RMAC Final. They faced Colorado School of Mines. These two teams played each other on February 20th. Colorado Mesa went into halftime of that game down 31-24. In the second half, Colorado Mesa flipped the script, outscoring Mines 40-27 to take the game 64-58.
In the Championship Game, it was back and forth throughout. Mesa ended the first half with an 8-point lead. They squandered that as Mines was able to force the game into overtime tied at 69. Overtime was back and forth. Mesa’s biggest lead in the overtime was 4 points with 3:46 left. Mines crawled their way back and ended up with a 4-0 run to tie the game. Colorado Mesa was up 75-73 with 1:20 to go in overtime. Mines hit a free throw with 57 seconds left. Both teams had chances to score but were unable to. With 9 seconds left Mines had an opportunity to knock off Mesa with the last possession. They missed a 3 which gave Mesa a 75-74 win to claim the RMAC Title.
Colorado Mesa is now headed to the Division 2 Basketball Tournament. They are the #1 seed and will take on the winner of Northwest Nazarene versus Point Luma on March 14th. Colorado Mesa hopes for a deep run in the Division 2 Basketball Tournament. No matter what happens, it has been a year to remember for the Colorado Mesa Men’s basketball team.
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