PUEBLO, Colo. - The Colorado State University Pueblo Women's Basketball team won their sixth straight game on Saturday evening, defeating South Dakota School of Mines 62-57 at Massari Arena.

With the win, the ThunderWolves are now 8-3 overall and 4-0 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play. The Pack sit atop the RMAC at 4-0 along with Black Hills State. With the loss for South Dakota Mines, the Hardrockers are now 1-10 overall on the season, and 1-3 in RMAC play.

Who else other than two-time All-American Alisha Little (Aurora, Colo./Northern Colorado) led the way for the ThunderWolves with another double-double, as the senior dropped a ho-hum 27 and 11. Little, who is the all-time blocks leader in CSU Pueblo history, recorded six more blocks on Saturday evening. Little leads the conference by a wide margin in blocks at 3.5 per game, is on pace to shatter that category in the RMAC. Little, who was also the NCAA's double-double leader one season ago, is leading once again in that category in 2024-25.

Shamahra Henderson (Denver, Colo./Cowley County) has really become a solid scoring option for Head Coach Tommie Johnson, as the two-way guard has really stepped up her scoring in her second season for the Pack. Henderson on Saturday, recorded a career-high 15 points and a career-high 12 boards for the Pack. 

Tomia Johnson (Colorado Springs, Colo./FGCU) did what she does best, play outstanding on both ends. Johnson ended with seven points, but dished out five assists in command of the offense, and also had two steals and one block.

The Pack had a solid assists to turnover ratio of 18-15.

ABOUT THE WIN

CSU Pueblo led from wire to wire, dominating for most of the contest, but the Hardrockers did not make things easy for the Pack, especially in the second half.

The Pack opened up the game on a 12-4 run with early buckets from Little and Henderson. Piper Bauer knocked down a three for the Hardrockers, but Henderson knocked down a tough floater to end the quarter, giving the ThunderWolves a 14-7 advantage after quarter one.

CSU Pueblo extended their lead to 16 at 25-9 halfway through the second quarter, looking to put things out of reach, but the Hardrockers fought and clawed late in the last five minutes to get the defecit down to 10 at 29-19 going into the break. Little was dominant in the first half, nearly recording a double-double by halftime with 13 points and eight rebounds.

South Dakota Mines came out firing in the second half, cutting the lead down to four with a 6-0 run out the gates with six points from Morning Grace Spotted Bear. South Dakota Mines continued to give the ThunderWolves fits in the third, cutting the lead down to one at one point at 34-33, but a turning point happened halfway through the quarter when Spotted Bear fouled out, as the Hardrockers missed track of the amount of fouls.

Little was able to get a bucket in the last 30 seconds of the quarter to give the Pack a 40-35 lead going into the fourth.

Both teams threw haymakers to begin the quarter. Henderson knocked down a three, along with a Little bucket, but was countered with a three from Lauren Herman to make the score 49-46. A three from Little extended the lead back to six for the ThunderWolves, but a three back at the other end from Emily Thomas made the score 52-49. Henderson made a couple of free throws, along with layups from Genesis Sweetwine (Aurora, Colo./Northeastern) and Brynae Stewart (Colorado Springs, Colo./Pine Creek) gave the Pack some breathing room up nine at 58-49 with 1:56 left to play.

South Dakota Mines was never able to get back into the game the last two minutes, and the Pack walked away with a close, but hard fought victory over a scrappy South Dakota Mines 62-57.