UCCS falls to Colorado Mesa, finally gets to come home

GRAND JUNCTION - Kelsey Sigl scored 25 points as the Colorado Mesa Mavericks defeated the University of Colorado Colorado Springs 64-49 Saturday evening at Brownson Arena.

Abby Kirchoff and Sammi Gentile had 14 and 11 points respectively for the Mountain Lions, who slipped to 9-6, 4-5 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. Gentile and Danielle Brown each had eight rebounds.

UCCS completed an exhausting first half of its schedule that saw the Mountain Lions away from home for 12 of their 15 games. Nine of UCCS' final 13 games will be at home.

Katrina Selsor added 14 points, eight rebounds and four assists for Colorado Mesa (8-6, 6-4 RMAC).

Colorado Mesa outshot UCCS 39.6 percent to 32.7 percent overall and 40.9 percent to 22.2 percent on 3-pointers.

Three consecutive 3-pointers, two by Kelsey Sigl and one by Dallas Rohrbaugh, gave the Mavericks a 9-0 run that put them up 21-11 in the first half. The lead stayed in that neighborhood through much of the period as Colorado Mesa made seven of their first 10 3-point attempts.

A three-point play by Hannah Knight and field goals by Sammi Gentile and Jessica Brown in the final two minutes helped the Mountain Lions trim the deficit to 31-25 at the intermission.

UCCS opened the second half with an 8-1 run, four by Gentile, to take their first lead since the game's first minute at 33-32. Colorado Mesa answered quickly, scoring the next five points. Two subsequent six-point runs by the Mavericks proved to be more than UCCS could overcome.