PUEBLO, Colo. – Colorado State University Pueblo women's basketball opened the New Year here Friday evening by recording season highs in points (80) and made three-pointers (12) en route to posting an 80-72 victory over Regis University in non-conference action at Massari Arena.
Friday's victory helped the ThunderWolves extend its winning streak to seven consecutive games and improve its overall record to 9-3 and 7-0 at home on the season, while Regis fell to 5-6 overall on the season. The seven-game win streak is the longest for the Pack since winning eight straight games during the 2021-22 season.
The game was the first for the Pack since collecting a 62-57 home win over Chadron State on Dec. 14 and its first game in the 2025 calendar year. The Pack is 42-10 at home since the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
Friday's win was keyed by strong perimeter shooting as the Pack finished the game by making a season-high 12 treys and shot 36.4 percent (12-for-33) from the 3-point line. Entering the game, the Pack was 14th in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in 3-point field goal percentage at 23.7 percent.
Along with making 12 treys, the Pack's win was keyed by a ninth double-double this season by redshirt senior forward
Alisha Little (Aurora, Colo./University of Northern Colorado) as scored a game-high 30 points and added 13 rebounds. She also added three assists, four steals and five blocked shots. Along with being her Division II-leading ninth double-double of the season, it was also her 38th career double-double at CSU Pueblo.
The 30 points pushed into third place in the state of Colorado women's basketball collegiate history with 2,180 points. Little passed former Colorado State player McKenna Hofschild for third on the state's all-time scoring chart as Hofschild scored 2,162 points with the Rams from 2020-24. CSU's Becky Hammon is the state's all-time leading scorer with 2,740 points.
Little has now scored 1,360 points of those 2,180 points in her time with the Pack and those 1,360 points are eighth on the school's all-time scoring list.
In addition to Little's double-double, senior guard
Tomia Johnson (Colorado Springs, Colo./Florida Gulf Coast) added 12 points and a career-high tying eight assists, while sophomore forward
Brynae Stewart (Colorado Springs, Colo./Pine Creek) and junior guard
Genesis Sweetwine (Aurora, Colo./Northeastern JC) each tallied 10 points in the win.
After trailing 34-29 at the half, the Pack outscored the Rangers, 51-38, in the second half, including a 28-18 edge in the third quarter to conclude its regular season non-conference schedule with a 5-3 record for the second straight season.
In the third period, the Pack shot 71 percent from the field and 43 percent from the 3-point line, while their defense held Regis to 20 percent shooting from the field and a 0-for-13 effort from the 3-point line to turn a five-point halftime deficit into a 57-52 lead heading into the final period.
The Pack opened the third period by scoring nine of the first 10 points to take a 38-35 lead following a lay-up by Little with 7:33 left in the period. After a lay-up from Fiona Snashall cut the Pack lead to 38-37, the Pack used a 12-4 run to push its lead to 50-41 following a trey by Little with 3:47 left in the period.
Regis, though, would close the period with an 11-7 run to cut the Pack's lead to 57-52 heading into the final 10 minutes of play.
The Pack opened the fourth period on a 12-4 run to push its lead to 69-56 following a trey from Stewart on a fast break with 5:22 left in the game. Stewart's trey came nearly a minute after Little hit her third trey of the game to give the Pack a 66-56 lead with a little more than six minutes remaining in the contest.
Regis, though, wouldn't go away as the two-time reigning RMAC regular season and tournament champions responded with a 9-4 run capped by a tip-in by Jessica Bollwahn to pull the Rangers within 70-65 with 2:55 left in the game.
Following that run by Regis, the Pack scored four straight points on lay-ups by senior guard
Shamahra Henderson (Denver, Colo./Cowley CC) and senior guard
Tosjanae Bonds (Denver, Colo./MSU Denver) to push out to a 74-65 lead with 1:39 remaining in the game.
After a trey from Erin Fry cut the Pack's lead to 74-68 with 1:28 left, Bonds would drill a trey 26 seconds later to give the Pack a 77-68 advantage. Regis would score four of the game's final seven points in the final minute of play to cap the scoring.
Fry led Regis with 16 points but was just 5-for-16 from the field and 2-for-10 from the 3-point line. In addition to Fry, Snashall added a double-double of 15 points and 16 rebounds, including eight offensive boards and Taylin Serlen also tallied 15 points and nine rebounds in the loss.
Regis' strong first half was keyed by 45 percent shooting from the field and five made 3-pointers, including a 3-for-4 effort from downtown by Pearle Green. The Rangers, who led by as much as 10 points at 25-15 with 7:48 left in the second period, held a 26-17 edge on the boards at the half, but the Pack was able to force nine turnovers. The Pack shot 31 percent from the field and 22 percent from the 3-point line in the opening half.
For the game, the Pack shot 46 percent from the field, while Regis finished the game shooting 36 percent from the field and 23 percent (7-for-31) from the 3-point line.
The Pack were outrebounded 50-35 in the game, including Regis collecting 20 offensive rebounds as they held a 20-8 edge in second-chance points. The Pack, though forced Regis into 14 turnovers that led to 10 points and collected 20 assists on 28 made baskets.
CSU Pueblo committed 10 turnovers and outscored the Rangers, 30-18 in the paint. The Pack also blocked six shots in the win.
The teams were also strong at the free throw line as the Pack shot 71 percent (12-for-17) at the line, while Regis shot 72 percent (13-for-18) from the charity stripe.
The Pack will return to RMAC play next week as they host Colorado Christian for a 5:30 p.m. game on Thursday, Jan. 9, and then travels to Colorado Springs for a 1 p.m. game on Saturday, Jan. 11 at UCCS.
