SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Colorado State University Pueblo men's basketball team began its final road trip of the regular season here Friday evening by scoring a season low 49 points in falling 87-49 to Westminster College in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play at Behnken Field House.
With the setback, the ThunderWolves postseason hopes took a hit as the Pack's record falls to 11-14 overall and 7-12 in the league, while Westminster improves to 11-14 overall and 10-9 in the league. The loss was the second straight for the Pack and dropped them into a tie for 11th place in the league standings.
The Pack will close its 2022-23 regular season road schedule on Saturday, Feb. 18 with a 7:30 p.m. game in Grand Junction, Colo., against 17th-ranked Colorado Mesa. Colorado Mesa improved to 21-4 overall and 16-3 in the RMAC following its 87-79 home win Friday over New Mexico Highlands.
Senior forward
Meekness Payne (Phoenix, Ariz./University of New Hampshire) led the way for the Pack with 10 points, while sophomore forward
Isaiah Thompson (Colorado Springs, Colo./Fountain-Fort Carson) added nine points and five rebounds to snap his streak of four consecutive double-doubles. Sophomore guard
Lian Ramiro (Aurora, Colo./Grandview) scored eight points and added five rebounds and sophomore forward
De'Shaun Cooper (Poway, Calif./Balboa School) had seven points and tied a career high with seven rebounds.
Friday's game was over in the opening nine-plus minutes of the game as Westminster jumped out to a 23-4 lead en route to holding a 38-20 lead at the half.
The Griffins lead would eventually grow to as much as 40 points at 87-47 with 16 seconds left in the game, before Payne made a turn-around jumper with four seconds to cap the scoring.
Westminster opened the scoring with a trey from Pierce Sterling just 18 seconds into the game, but the Pack would use a basket by Ramiro 30 seconds later to cut WC's lead to 3-2. That would be as close as the Pack would get as they score 12 straight points to push out to a 15-2 lead with 13:53 left in the first half.
After two free throws by Payne brought the Pack within 11 at 15-4, the Griffins would score eight straight points to take its 23-4 lead. The lead would grow to 21 at 32-11 following a hook shot by Trey Farrer, before the Pack would close the opening half on 9-6 run to pull within 38-20 at the half.
The Pack would open the second half by scoring eight of the first 16 points to pull within 46-28 following a trey by Thompson with 15:02 left in the game.
That would be as close as the Pack would get as the Griffins used a 22-10 run to push out to a 68-38 lead with 4:45 remaining in the game. Cooper would make a layup with 4:10 left in the game to pull within 68-40, the Griffins would push its lead back up to as much as 40 points late in the second half.
Farrer led four Westminster players in double figures with 28 points and added 11 rebounds. Taylor Miller had 15 points, nine rebounds and six assists, while Donaval Avila had 14 points and Sterling finished with 10 points.
The Pack finished the game shooting a season-low 27 percent from the field and were 5-for-28 (17.9 percent) from the 3-point line. Meanwhile, Westminster shot 53 percent from the field and 29 percent from the 3-point line.
Westminster held a 49-33 edge on the boards and outscored the Pack, 52-20 in the paint.
The Pack finished with 18 turnovers that led to 16 points for the Griffins, while WC had 16 turnovers. The Griffins also blocked seven shots with two each by Farrer and Cole Kadoguchi.
CSU Pueblo shot 19 free throws in the game as they 12 of those free throw attempts for 63 percent, while the Griffins were 10-for-13 (77 percent) at the line.
