Grizzly junior Kendra Coveal finished the night with 12 points and six rebounds.Grizzly women fall at Mesa
February 6, 2010GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Mesa State College Mavericks out-scored the Adams State College Grizzlies 10-2 over the last two and a half minutes as they snapped the Grizzlies’ 4-game winning streak with a hard-fought 53-49 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference win, Saturday night here in the Brownson Arena.
The Mavericks, led by 14 points each from Hannah Breidel and Katie Cupp and another dozen from Jenn Kimbrow improved to 8-12 overall while keeping their RMAC Shootout hopes alive with a 5-8 conference mark. They have now won four of their last five, including two road wins over NAIA opponents.
The Grizzlies fell to 16-4 overall and to 10-3 in the RMAC and are now two full games behind RMAC West Division-leading Fort Lewis and tied with Colorado State-Pueblo, who they play on the road next Friday night at 6 p.m., for second place in the division.
The winner of that game, which tips-off at 6 p.m., will have the inside track towards a home game in the RMAC Shootout quarterfinals. It will also be a rematch of the Grizzlies’ 78-61 win over the ThunderWolves on Jan. 30 in Alamosa.
The Grizzlies shot just 34.8 percent (16-46) from the field throughout Saturday’s game and were guilty of 18 turnovers as the Mavericks came from 47-43 down when Breidel and Courtney McCaig hit 3-pointers on successive possessions putting the home team up 49-47 with 1:39 to go.
The Grizzlies the missed two shots on their next possession and were unable to grab the rebound when McCaig missed a shot in the final minute. Alaina Brennan was able to grab the rebound, one of her game-high seven, as the Mavericks ran the clock down under 20 seconds as the Grizzlies had just four team fouls in the half forcing them to commit three fouls before sending the Mavericks to the line.
When they did go to the charity stripe, Cupp hit two free throws to put the Mavericks up 51-47 with 16.6 seconds left.
The Grizzlies then did score their first field goal in nearly four minutes as Vera Jo Bustos (Las Vegas, N.M.), who led the Grizzlies with 14 points, hit a bucket with 10.3 seconds to go.
With a 51-49 lead, the Mavericks then sealed the win as Breidel hit two more free throws.
The Mavericks, who went to the line just twice in the first half, were a perfect 8-for-8 in the second and shot 39.6 percent (21-53) from the field on the night. They were also guilty of just 12 turnovers and matched the Grizzlies with 34 total rebounds, quite an accomplishment considering the Grizzlies came into the game leading the NCAA Division II statistics in rebounding margin while out-boarding each of their last 18 opponents.
Kendra Coveal (Albuquerque, N.M.) and Misti Solomon (Snowflake, Ariz.) were tied for the team-lead in rebounds with six each and were also in double-figures scoring 12 and 10 points, respectively.
The Grizzlies were tabbed third in the NCAA Division II Central Regional Rankings coming in to the weekend and were looking to complete a road-sweep after claiming a 14-point win at Western State on Friday night.
