COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Colorado State University Pueblo men's basketball continued its recent struggles here Saturday as the ThunderWolves suffered its fourth straight setback as they fell 82-60 to UCCS in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action at the Gallogly Events Center.
With the setback, the Pack dropped its overall record to 8-6 on the season and fell to 3-3 in the RMAC, while UCCS improved to 10-4 overall and 4-2 in the league. The loss dropped the Pack into a five-way tie for sixth place in the RMAC standings.
For the second straight game, the Pack defense allowed an opponent to score 80 points as the Pack allowed Colorado Christian to score 83 points in its 83-72 win over the Pack on Thursday night at Massari Arena. The Pack has now allowed three straight opponents to score 80 or more points as they allowed Hawai'i Pacific to tally 80 points in the final game of the Hoops in Hawai'i Holiday Classic on Dec. 20.
Along with allowing 82 points to the Mountain Lions, the Pack, who snapped a six-game RMAC regular-season road win streak with Saturday's defeat, allowed UCCS to shoot 53 percent from the field and 40 percent from the 3-point line in the game, including shooting 57 percent from the field in the second half as UCCS outscored the Pack, 43-26, after halftime.
Fifth-year senior guard
Brevin Walter (Las Vegas, Nev./South Dakota Mines) paced the Pack offense with 16 points, including scoring 11 points of those points in the first half as the Pack trailed 39-34 at the half. Along with Walter's 16 points, senior forward
De'Shaun Cooper (San Diego, Calif./Balboa School) added 14 points, and redshirt sophomore guard
Jaden Kennis (Windsor, Colo./MSU Denver) tallied 10 points and a team-high seven rebounds in the setback.
UCCS' held senior guard
Armon Muldrew (Perris, Calif./San Bernardino Valley) to a season-low four points as he was 2-for-9 from the field. Muldrew entered the game leading the Pack in scoring on the season 11.8 points per game and had a four-game streak of double-digit scoring efforts snapped.
While UCCS shot 53 percent from the field and 40 percent from the 3-point line, the Pack finished the game shooting 46 percent from the field and 33 percent (3-for-9) from long distance. In the second half, the Pack shot just 44 percent from the field and was 1-for-7 (14.3 percent) from the 3-point line. The Pack also struggled as the line on Saturday as they finished the game 11-for-18 (61.1 percent) from the line. UCCS finished the game 12-for-16 (75 percent) from the line.
UCCS jumped to an early 5-2 lead, but the Pack responded with a 7-0 run capped by a Kennis 3-pointer to give the Pack a 9-5 lead just a little over five minutes into the contest. The Mountain Lions would score four straight points to tie the game a 9-all with 14:14 left in the first half.
Following that run, the Pack answered with a 4-2 run to retake the lead at 13-11 with 12:37 remaining in the first half. That lead was short-lived, as UCCS used a 17-6 run over the next six-plus minutes to push out to a 28-19 lead with 7:36 left in the half.
The Pack, though, came right back as they scored nine of the next 13 points to pull within 32-28 following a lay-up by Cooper with 4:24 remaining in the opening half. UCCS would answer back with a 7-2 run to push its lead back to nine at 39-30 with 1:43 left in the half.
Back-to-back baskets by Muldrew and Cooper to close the first half cut UCCS' halftime lead to 39-34. The Pack is now 0-6 this season when trailing at the half.
The Pack opened the second half by scoring five of the first seven points to cut UCCS' lead to 41-39 following a trey by Walter just 90 seconds into the half.
That would be as close as the Pack would get as the Mountain Lions used a 32-11 run over the next 13-plus minutes to push its lead to 73-50.
Following a basket by Walter with 4:39 left in the game that pushed the Pack within 21 points at 73-52, UCCS would close the game by scoring nine of the final 17 points as its lead wouldn't dip under 21 points over the final four-and-half minutes.
Xavier Martinez paced UCCS with 25 points, while Hannes Saar added 19. Derek Pranger and William Becker tallied 12 and 11 points respectively in the win. Becker, Martinez, and Pranger combined to score 24 of UCCS' 43 second-half points.
The Pack was outrebounded, 31-28, in the game as Kennis had seven for the Pack, while Jezza McKenzie pulled down seven boards for UCCS.
The Pack also committed 13 turnovers that led to 17 points for the Mountain Lions and had just seven assists on 23 made baskets. UCCS finished with seven turnovers and had 13 assists on 32 made baskets. UCCS also held a 7-2 edge in blocked shots as Becker was credited with three blocks on the day.
CSU Pueblo will look to begin a new road win streak next week as it concludes its three-game RMAC road trip with a 7:30 p.m. game on Thursday, Jan. 16 in Golden, Colo., at 15th-ranked Colorado School of Mines (12-2 overall, 6-0 RMAC), before concluding the road trip with a 1 p.m. game on Saturday, Jan. 18 in Denver, Colo., against Regis (6-8 overall, 4-2 RMAC).
