PUEBLO, Colo. - Coloraodo State University Pueblo women's basketball celebrated Senior Night here Saturday with an 82-63 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference victory over Colorado School of Mines in the 2024-25 regular season finale at Massari Arena.
With the win, the ThunderWolves improve to 18-10 overall and 13-7 in the RMAC, while Mines ends the season with a 12-16 overall record and 10-10 in the league. The victory helped the Pack finish in a tie with Black Hills State for fourth place in the regular season standings and earn the No. 5 seed in next week's RMAC Tournament.
Despite being tied with Black Hills State in the standings, the Pack will open the RMAC Tournament with a 6 p.m. quarterfinal game in Spearfish, S.D., on Tuesday, March 4 against the Yellow Jackets as they owned the tiebreaker over the Pack thanks to their 62-48 win in Spearfish on Feb. 6. The winner will face the winner between No. 1 seeded Colorado Mesa and No. 8 seeded New Mexico Highlands in a semifinal round game on Friday, March 7 at the site of the highest seeded team left in the tournament. The winner of the RMAC Tournament receives the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament.
Before Saturday's game, the Pack honored its seven-member senior class in a pregame ceremony. The Pack's seven seniors are guard
Tosjanae Bonds (Denver, Colo./MSU Denver), guard
Yara Garcia (Scottsbluff, Neb./Western Nebraska CC), guard
Shamahra Henderson (Thornton, Colo./Cowley County CC), guard
Landri Hudson (Aurora, Colo./University of Wyoming), guard
Tomia Johnson (Colorado Springs, Colo./Florida Gulf Coast), forward
Alisha Little (Aurora, Colo./University of Northern Colorado), forward
Autumn Watts (Highlands Ranch, Colo./McNeese State).
The seven seniors combined for 65 of the Pack's 82 points as Little led the way with a game-high 24 points, but had her double-double streak of 12 consecutive game snapped as she finished with eight rebounds, three steals and blocked five shots. The 24 points pushed her career total to 2,613 and is now 123 points shy of Becky Hammon's state scoring record of 2,740 points. In addition, her 24 points pushed her season total to 715, which is third-most in single season in RMAC history. The RMAC's single season scoring record is 880 points held by Fort Hays State's Annette Wiles in 1990-91.
In addition to Little's 24 points, Johnson finished with 17 points and added six assists and three steals, while Hudson tallied 12 points and Bonds had 10 points off the bench. Henderson did not score in 21 minutes of action, while Watts, who suffered a season-ending injury just three minutes into the season opener against Lubbock Christian, scored the first basket of the game for the Pack before coming out to the game to a boisterous applause from the 825 fans in attendance.
Johnson's six assists pushed her career total to 338, which is fifth on the school's all-time chart, while her steals pushed her career total to 202, which is also fifth on the school's all-time chart.
The other double-digit scorer for the Pack was junior guard
Genesis Sweetwine (Aurora, Colo./Northeastern JC) had 12 points off the bench. The Pack's bench finished with a 27-16 edge in bench points.
Mines held an 8-7 lead just four-plus minutes into the game, before the Pack used a 12-2 run capped a trey from Bonds to take a 19-10 lead with 3:25 left in the opening period. After Jenna Siebert scored with 2:58 left in the period to cut the Pack's lead to 19-12, CSU Pueblo responded with a 7-0 run to push its lead to 26-12. The Orediggers would score the six of the final nine points of the period to cut the Pack's lead to 29-18 after 10 minutes of play.
The Pack opened the second period on a 10-3 run to push out to a 39-21 lead with 7:20 left in the period. Mines, though, answered back with an 11-4 run to cut the Pack's lead to 43-32 with 3:13 left in the period. Following Mines' run, the Pack closed the second period by scoring four of the final six points to take a 47-34 halftime lead.
The Pack would outscore Mines 21-7 in the third period to hold a 68-41 lead heading into the final period. Little scored nine of the Pack's 21 points in the period.
In the final period, the Pack scored four of the first six points to push its lead to 30 points at 73-43. The 30-point lead was the largest of the game for the Pack. Following that run, Mines would score 20 of the final 29 points to set the final margin. Mines won the fourth period, 22-14.
Jenna Siebert paced Mines with 15 points, including 11 of those points coming in the fourth period. In addition to Siebert, Jessica Riggs added 11 points, while Josephine Howery added 10 points and six rebounds in her final collegiate game.
The Pack finished the game shooting 51 percent from the field and 42 percent from the 3-point line (10-for-24), while holding Mines to 33.9 percent shooting from the field and 33 percent from the 3-point line.
Mines held a 43-31 edge on the boards, but the Pack forced the Orediggers into 19 turnovers that led to 17 points. The Pack finished with 14 turnovers and collected 11 steals. Along with Johnson's three steals, Little also had three steals. The Pack also blocked nine shots and have now blocked 147 shots this season.
The Pack was also strong at the free throw line as they finished 20-for-22 (90.9 percent) at the line, including Little going 7-for-8 at the line and Sweetwine going 6-for-6 at the line. Mines finished the game 9-for-18 (50 percent) at the line.
CSU Pueblo will now turn its attention on the postseason as they will be making their 25th all-time appearance in the RMAC Tournament as the Pack has posted a record of 28-17 in the tournament and has captured six tournament titles, with the most recent coming in 2018. Last season, the Pack was the No. 8 seed and collected an upset win in the first round at top-seeded Colorado Mesa before falling in the semifinal round against UCCS.
