PUEBLO, Colo. – Three days after Colorado State University Pueblo men's basketball had its home Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference with Westminster postponed with nine-plus minutes left in the contest due to a power outage that affected the north side of Pueblo, including the CSU Pueblo campus, the ThunderWolves were officially awarded with the victory over the Griffins on Monday afternoon by the league office.
 
"The February 23rd RMAC men's basketball contest between Westminster and CSU Pueblo, which was interrupted due to a community power outage, has been declared final by RMAC Commissioner Chris Graham today. With one week remaining in the regular season there was no reasonable opportunity to complete the game. NCAA Basketball Rule 5, Section 3, Part 5 indicates that the final score shall be CSU Pueblo 66 - Westminster 52, and all game statistics shall count as least 30 minutes were completed in the game," said the RMAC in a statement Monday afternoon. 

Per NCAA Men's Basketball Rule 5, Section 3, Part 5, the statistics count, and the win-loss are recognized by the NCAA and the he game will be recognized in RAC considerations. 
 
With this decision from the RMAC, the Pack, who was leading the game 66-52 at the time of the power outage, will be rewarded with the victory and all stats from the game up to the power outage will become official with both the RMAC and NCAA. With the victory, the Pack improves to 12-14 overall and 8-12 in the RMAC, while Westminster falls to 8-18 overall and 4-16 in the league.
 
Prior to the power outage, which occurred with 9:07 left in the game, the Pack was in the midst of a 13-0 run that turned a 53-52 advantage into a 66-52 lead. The run began with a lay-up from senior guard Makiah Morris (San Diego, Calif./San Diego City College) and was capped by five straight points from senior guard Brevin Walter (Las Vegas, Nev./South Dakota Mines).
 
In fact, the Pack outscored the Griffins, 25-12 in the second half.
 
The momentum in the second half turned in the Pack's favor just a little over two minutes into the half as Drake Middleton drew back-to-back technical fouls and that led to four made free throws for Pack to turn a 42-all game into a 46-42 lead. Walter made three of the four technical free throws and Muldrew, who was fouled by Middleton on the play that led to his two technical fouls, hit just 1-of-2 free throws.
 
Westminster, who has now lost four of its last five games to the Pack, jumped out to a 14-point lead with 9:27 left in the first half, before the Pack responded with a 15-2 run keyed by five points from Morris to pull within 30-29 with 4:58 left in the opening half.
 
The Griffins, though, responded with a 9-4 run over the next 3-plus minutes to push its lead to 39-33. Following that run, the Pack closed out the first half by scoring eight of the final nine points, including junior guard Armon Muldrew (Perris, Calif./San Bernardino Valley) drilling a 3-pointer from about 28 feet right before the buzzer to give the Pack a 41-40 lead at the half.
 
Both teams shot over 50 percent from the field in the opening half as Westminster was 14-for-24 (58 percent) from the field and was 6-for-12 (50 percent) from the 3-point line, while the Pack were just as hot from the field as they shot 50 percent (16-for-32) from the field and were 4-for-12 (33 percent) from the 3-point line in the opening 20 minutes of action.
 
Morris led the way offensively for the Pack with 16 points and added four rebounds, three assists and four steals, while Walter added 12 points, three rebounds and four assists and freshman guard/forward Corbin Garver (Colorado Springs, Colo./Air Academy) added 12 points off the bench as the Pack bench held a 15-11 edge in the game.
 
The fourth double-digit scorer for the Pack was Muldrew, who scored 11 points in the victory.
 
Meanwhile, Westminster was paced offensively by 15 points from Rylan O'Brien, while Trey Wood tallied nine points and five rebounds and Cole Kadoguchi added eight points in the setback.
 
For the game, the Pack shot 51 percent from the field and 38 percent (6-for-16) from the 3-point line, while Westminster shot 48 percent from the field and 35 percent (6-for-17) from downtown.
 
Westminster shot just 31 percent from the field and was 0-for-5 from the 3-point line in the second half, while the Pack shot 53 percent from the field and 50 percent from the 3-point line after halftime.
 
The Pack were outrebounded, 26-23, but won the turnover battle, 14-5 as the Pack score 22 points off those 14 Griffin turnovers.
 
CSU Pueblo also had 17 assists on 25 made baskets, while the Griffins had 11 assists on 19 made baskets.
 
The teams combined to go 18-for-27 from the free throw line as the Pack were 10-for-16 (63 percent) at the line and Westminster was 8-for-11 (73 percent).
 
The Pack will close out the 2023-24 regular season this coming weekend (March 1-2) with games on Friday, March 1 in Colorado Springs, Colo., against UCCS at 5 p.m. and on Saturday, March 2 in Denver, Colo., with a 7 p.m. game against Regis. The meeting with UCCS will be the first and only meeting this season, while the game with Regis will be the second of the season as the Rangers earned an 81-67 win over the Pack in Massari Arena.