GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.  Trailing by only five points at the halftime break, Western Colorado wasn't able to hold off host Colorado Mesa University's big  second half as the fourth-ranked Mavericks earned a 73-41 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference win Saturday afternoon at Brownson Arena.

JUST THE FACTS
Final score: CMU def. Western, 73-41
Records: Western 14-10 overall (12-6 RMAC), CMU 28-1 (18-0)
Location: Brownson Arena, Grand Junction, Colo.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Mountaineers opened with the first two buckets of the game but leading 7-3 they surrendered a 7-0 run to give up the lead to the Mavericks.
• Ivey Schmidt popped a 3-pointer to tie the game at 10-10 and Jacy Chandler hit a jumper for a 12-10 advantage, but CMU tossed out another 7-0 that Western had to battle back from.
• By the time the halftime break hit, the Mountaineers had limited the highly ranked Mavericks to a narrow 24-19 lead, holding CMU to just 29% shooting from the floor.
• After cutting the lead to three, 29-26, on an Alyssa Eckroth jumper, Mesa responded with its biggest run of the game, a 14-0 spurt that became a 19-2 run and a 48-28 lead at the end of the period.
• Western shot just 12% from the floor in the fourth quarter while the Mavs shot 50%, forging a 20-6 fourth-quarter scoring advantage that dampened Western's hopes for any kind of rally.

COURT NOTES

• Eckroth led Western with 17 points, but the Mavs held Mountaineer leading scorer Schmidt to just 9 points and RMAC-leading 3-point shooter Jayda Maves to 2 points and 0-for-6 from behind the arc.
• Schmidt hit double digits in rebounds with 11 but the normally dominant Mountaineers were outrebounded in the game 48-34.

RMAC PLAYOFF IMPLICATIONS

• While a damaging loss to Western's hopes to earning a top-four spot in the final regular-season standings, a Black Hills State loss and a UC Colorado Springs win on Saturday put both of those teams at 13-5 in league play, just one game ahead of the Mountaineers.
• Black Hills State's season split with UCCS could put the Yellow Jackets back in fourth place just ahead of Western, whose defeat of Black Hills State opens the door, via a head-to-head tiebreaker, for the Mountaineers to stay in the hunt for a hosting spot as the Yellow Jackets close out their regular season against visiting Colorado Mesa.

UP NEXT
The Mountaineers will close out their regular season on the road, playing at Chadron State (Neb.) College on Feb. 26 followed by a game at South Dakota Mines two days later.