GUNNISON, Colo. --- The Western Colorado women's basketball team used a strong third quarter to create some distance and held off South Dakota Mines for a 79-72 victory Monday in a non-conference game at Paul Wright Gym to set a new mark for best start in program history.

The victory moves the Mountaineers to 5-0, besting the 4-0 start by the 1980-81 team.

Western (5-0 overall, 4-0 RMAC) appeared it was going to pull away late in the second quarter as an Emmery Wagstaff 3-pointer - one of six the junior hit - made it 39-30 with two minutes remaining in the half. The Hardrockers (2-5 overall, 2-4 RMAC) ended the quarter on a 6-0 run to cut the Mountaineer lead to 39-36.

Western - who had just eight players in uniform - held a 47-42 advantage when a bucket in the paint from Samantha Coleman ignited an 11-0 run capped by a Hannah Cooper 3-pointer at the 2:36 mark in the third quarter to make it 58-52 Mountaineers. 

The lead grew to as much as 18 points in the third, but Mines didn't go away and battled back as it cut the lead down to six points with 3:10 remaining in the fourth after a Ryan Weiss 3-pointer.

Wagstaff drained a huge 3-pointer for the Mountaineers with 2:23 left to push the Western advantage back to nine as Mines wouldn't get closer than seven points the rest of the way.

Wagstaff - a transfer from Utah State-Eastern - scored a season-high 24 points on 9-for-14 shooting, including going 6-for-8 from 3-point range. She also added five rebounds. Senior Mikaela Parker also had a big night, setting a new career high with 17 points to go along with five rebounds. Cooper had 19 points, seven assists, three rebounds and two steals while Samantha Coleman had 10 points and four steals and Jessie ERickson had four points, seven rebounds and six assists.

As a team, the Mountaineers shot 55.4 percent from the field - including a scorching 8-for-11 from 3-point range.

Mines was also hot from deep as the Hardrockers went 10-for-22 (45.5 percent) from 3-point range while shooting 46.7 percent from field overall. Both teams were a bit careless at times with the ball as Western and Mines both had 19 turnovers.

Makenna Bodette led Mines with 20 points off the bench to go along with five blocked shots. Weiss had 17 points (going 5-for-8 from 3-point range) while adding six rebounds.

The two teams meet again 2 p.m. Tuesday - this contest counting toward the RMAC standings.