Box Score How It Happened
Make it eight straight as Colorado School of Mines (8-2, 6-0) fought back from as much an 11-point second half deficit to down Western New Mexico 58-57 on the Mustangs homecourt on New Year's Day 2016.
Down 57-56 with 43 seconds left, Mines blocked all three of Western New Mexico's attempts to put the game away. Then, after a timeout, senior Courtney Martin found redshirt-freshman Mikaela Moore on the baseline for the game winner on a big-to-big high-low play. The Orediggers defense then locked in for the final 23 seconds and saw WNMU's last attempt clang off the back iron to steal an RMAC victory in Silver City.
The Orediggers came out the gates strong as Courtney Martin scored the team's first six points in lieu to a quick 8-2 lead. Martin was strong in the first half as she led both teams with 15 points and six rebounds. The home standing Mustangs slowly chipped away at Mines' advantage over the most of the quarter and finally took their first lead at 11-10 with 2:18 remaining. Little did Mines know but they would chase the Mustangs from that point forward.
Western New Mexico's lead grew to as much as 11 as Jada Grady hit back-to-back three balls to start the second period. The Orediggers had quite a bit of trouble in third quarter putting the ball in the hole, but with 4:28 remaining in the half CSM started on the comeback trail with a Martin jumper. Martin and her teammates then locked in defensively and chipped away at the advantage until it they finally tied it at 30 on junior Laura Tyree's three-pointer at the intermission buzzer.
Mines then briefly carried over their momentum into the second half as Tyree and redshirt-freshman Emily Bailey hit back-to-back jumpers to take a 34-30 lead a minute and 52 seconds into the half. The lead ended up being short-lived though as the Mustangs kept raining it in from deep to push their lead back out to 11 (47-36) before Mikaela Moore got a fast break layup to cut into WNMU's 49-40 lead at the end of the quarter.
Now trailing heading into the fourth and final period, Mines got to work quickly with freshman Anna Kollmorgen and Tyree scoring the first six points of the quarter to narrow the Western New Mexico lead to 49-46 at the 7:44 mark.
WNMU responded though and pushed its lead back to six on Jade Botelho's jumper with 6:20 to go. The Orediggers responded in kind themselves by finally tying the game at 54 apiece at the two minute mark when Moore capped a 6-0 run with a nifty layup. Moore's game-tying layup was bit of foreshadowing as she ended hitting the game winner almost a minute and a half later.
Notables
- Colorado School of Mines is now off to a 6-0 start in the RMAC for the first time program history.
- Having now won eight consecutive games, Mines is now one win away from tying the program record for consecutive victories.
- CSM has also won its last three games by three points or less.
- For Mines to force the halftime draw, the Orediggers defense held Western New Mexico without a bucket for the last four minutes and 26 seconds of the first half.
- During the key defensive stand before the game winning bucket, Anna Kollmorgen, Laura Tyree and Courtney Martin each blocked all three of Western New Mexico's shot attempts.
- Courtney Martin paced the Orediggers with a game-high 19 points and 10 rebounds for her second double-double of the season.
- Martin, Tyree and Emily Bailey each had two blocks as Mines had seven total on the night.
- Tyree and Bailey also reached double-digits in scoring with 15 and 12, respectively.
- CSM outrebounded Western New Mexico 46-34 and had an 11-6 advantage on the offensive glass which led to 11 second-chance points.
Up Next
Mines is back in action tomorrow evening as they stay in the Land of Enchantment for a matchup with New Mexico Highlands at 5 p.m.
