PUEBLO, Colo. – Colorado State University Pueblo redshirt senior forward Alisha Little (Aurora, Colo./University of Northern Colorado) became the school's all-time leader in career blocked shots en route to helping the ThunderWolves open its own Thanksgiving Classic with a 57-53 victory over Haskell Indians Nations University at Massari Arena.
 
With the win, the Pack improve to 3-3 on the season and 3-0 at home, while Haskell fell to 0-4 with the loss. The Pack will conclude the Thanksgiving Classic with a 7 p.m. game against Northern New Mexico College Saturday night.
 
Little entered Friday's game needing just three blocked shots to pass Molly Rohrer on the school's career blocked shot chart as Rohrer blocked 207 shots from 2015-18. Little, though, eclipsed Rohrer's record as she finished with six blocks in the game to go along with a career-high tying 35 points and added 10 rebounds for her third double-double of the season and 32nd of her career. Little has now blocked 211 shots in her time with the Pack.
 
Little tied Rohrer's career block mark with a block on a hook shot by Janae Kalama with 5:34 left in the third period and set a new school record with her block on a lay-up attempt by Malia Jacobs with 44 seconds left in the third quarter with the Pack holding a 40-38 lead.
 
After being held to just 10 points and one blocked shot in the first half, Little would explode in the second half as she scored 20 of the Pack's 30 second-half points and added five blocks. The 35 points tied her previous career high last season against Regis and was her second 30-plus point game this season and fifth of her Pack career.
 
With her 35 points, Little moved into 10th in the school's all-time scoring chart with 1,205 points and is now one of 10 players in program history to score 1,200 or more career points. She is just 392 points shy of Nadia Fercha's school record of 1,597 points. In addition, her 35 points pushed her collegiate scoring total to 2,025 points, which is sixth most in the state of Colorado collegiate women's basketball history as she passed former Northern Colorado player Savannah Smith, who scored 2,013 career points at UNC from 2014-19. Little is now 715 points shy of former Colorado State player Becky Hammon all-time state of Colorado scoring record of 2,740 points.  
 
The Pack needed all the offense they could get from Little in Friday's game as the rest of the team managed to score just 22 points as they were a combined 9-for-45 (20 percent) from the field and just 2-for-25 (8.0 percent) from the 3-point line. Little finished was 13-for-21 from the field, was 0-for-2 from the 3-point line and 9-for-12 from the free throw line.
 
In addition to Little's game-high and career-high tying 35 points, the next highest scorer for the Pack was senior guard Shamahra Henderson (Denver, Colo./Cowley County CC) as she tallied nine points in the win. Sophomore forward Brynae Stewart (Colorado Springs, Colo./Pine Creek) added six points and five rebounds in the game.
 
CSU Pueblo led 27-26 at the half, but Haskell would outscore the Pack, 15-13 in the third quarter to take a 41-40 lead into the final period. Little scored 10 points and blocked three shots in the third period.
 
Trailing by a point entering the final period, the Pack retook the lead nearly two minutes into the quarter on a lay-up by Stewart. About two minutes later, Little gave the Pack a 44-41 lead on a lay-up.
 
Tea Murray would bring the Indians within a point at 44-43 following her basket with 5:54 left in the game. The Pack, though, would score nine of the next 13 points to push out to a 53-47 lead following a driving lay-up by Henderson with 2:32 remaining in the contest.
 
Haskell, though, wouldn't go away as they used baskets by Kalama and Angela Astorga in a span of a minute to cut the Pack lead to 53-51 with 1:40 left in the game. Little would give the Pack a 55-51 lead with a lay-up with 1:27 left, but Haskell answered right back with a lay-up by Mikeya Sheppard off a turnover by the Pack to pull within 55-53 with 60 seconds left in the game.
 
After another turnover by the Pack with 47 seconds left, Haskell had the ball and a chance to either tie the game or take the lead, but a turnover by Astorga with 13 seconds left gave the ball back to the Pack and Little would hit two free throws with six seconds left to seal the win.
 
Haskell jumped out to a 13-12 lead after the opening 10 minutes of play, but the Pack would open the second period on a 6-5 run to take a 20-18 lead following a free throw by Little with 6:18 left in the period. Haskell, though, responded with a 6-0 run to take a 24-20 lead with 3:52 left in the period.
 
The Pack would close the period by scoring seven of the final nine points, including capping the run with a tip-in lay-up by Little with 1:07 left in the period to give the Pack a 27-26 lead.
 
Haskell was paced offensively by 15 points from Kalama, while Tierzah Penn added nine points and Astorga and Murray each had seven points off the bench. Murray added 12 rebounds as Haskell outrebounded the Pack, 52-41, including collecting 15 offensive boards that led to 13 second chance points.
 
The Pack finished the game shooting 33 percent from the field and just 2-for-27 from the 3-point line, while Haskell shot 34 percent from the field and 21 percent from the 3-point line.
 
Neither team fared well at the free throw line as the Pack were 11-for-18 (61.1 percent) and Haskell was 8-for-13 (61.5 percent).

The Pack finished with 16 assists on 22 made baskets as senior guard Tomia Johnson (Colorado Springs, Colo./Florida Gulf Coast) had five assists, while Stewart and junior guard Genesis Sweetwine (Aurora, Colo./Northeastern JC) each had three assists in the win. 
 
The Pack forced Haskell into 26 turnovers that led to 17 points as Little also picked up a career-high eight steals. The Pack collected a season-high 16 steals. The Pack had 18 turnovers in the game, including 11 in the second half.