DENVER  In its season opener Friday against No. 2 Texas Women's University, the Mountaineers pulled to within four points at the halftime break. But the Pioneers opened the third quarter with a 7-0 run that helped last season's national runner-up build a cushion that Western Colorado had a tough time digging into in a 71-52 non-conference women's basketball loss at MSU Denver's Auraria Activity Center.

Friday's afternoon game was the first of four in the Conference Challenge with the Mountaineers and Pioneers joined by the host Roadrunners and Angelo State (Texas) University, Western's Saturday opponent.

JUST THE FACTS
Final score: TWU def. Western, 71-52
Records: Western 0-1, TWU 3-0
Location: Auraria Activity Center, Denver, Colo.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The teams were tied at 6-6 early in the first quarter, however, TWU finished the period on a 15-5 tear to close out the first 10 minutes with a 21-11 advantage.
• Western came alive in the second quarter, though. It outscored the Pioneers, 16-10, won the rebounding battle (9-7), and hit 4-of-6 from behind the arc while hounding TWU to an 0-for-5 quarter from long range.
• Ivey Schmidt led the second-quarter charge for Western, scoring eight of her team-high 13 points during the frame. And both of Natalie Jojola's 3-pointers came in the quarter on back-to-back shots.
• The rebounding advantage during those 10 minutes came almost exclusively off the defensive rim as Jayda Maves with three boards, Schmidt with two and Jojola, Chloe Daniels and Penelope Urquhart each with one rebound added to Western's eight defensive boards.
• The Pioneers must have talked things over at the break as they came out of the locker room and started the third quarter on that 7-0 run, on the way to doubling up the Mountaineers in the frame, 25-12.
• Western played even with TWU over the final 10 minutes, 15-13, but the Pioneers' third-quarter explosion was too great of a deficit from which to rally.

COURT NOTES

• Schmidt and Jojola, with 10 points, led Western's scoring effort, with freshman Urquhart adding 8 in her first collegiate game.
• Brooklyn Seymour pulled down five rebounds while Schmidt and Maves came away with four each.
• The Mountaineers finished the game 6-of-15 from long range, two each from Schmidt, Jojola and Urquhart.
• Both team's benches were solid contributors, Western's subs chipping in with 25 points while the Pioneers' non-starters added 29.

NEXT UP
The Mountaineers have a day to regroup before taking on Angelo State Sunday at 12 p.m. at the Activity Center.