PUEBLO, Colo. - Colorado State University Pueblo men's basketball extended its home court win streak to seven straight games here Tuesday evening as the ThunderWolves shot a season-high 58 percent from the field and held a 36-21 edge on the boards en route to posting an 80-69 victory over UCCS in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action at Massari Arena.
With the victory, the Pack won its third straight game and improved to 16-7 overall and moved into sole possession of fourth place in the league standings with a 10-5 record, while UCCS fell to 12-11 overall and 7-8 in the league. The Pack also moved to 11-2 at home this season with Tuesday's win, and the 11 home court wins are the most in a season for the Pack since posting a 13-2 home record during the 2014-15 season.
Junior guard Dylan Sanders (Aurora, Colo./Pearl River CC) matched a career-high with 20 points as he was 7-for-14 from the field and 4-for-8 from the 3-point line to pace the Pack offensively. In addition to Sanders, redshirt sophomore forward Ty Adam (Severance, Colo./Severance) added a career-high 14 points off the bench, while sophomore guard/forward Jordan Blair (Keller, Texas/Keller Central) tallied 14 points and nine rebounds, and freshman guard Bryce Riehl (Colorado Springs, Colo./Mesa Ridge) had 12 points, including hitting four treys as the RMAC's top 3-point shooter was 4-for-7 from the perimeter.
CSU Pueblo shot a blistering 57.7 percent (30-for-52) from the floor and 43.5 percent (10-for-23) from the 3-point line, including shooting 60 percent from the floor and 50 percent from downtown in building a 40-36 halftime lead.
UCCS opened the second half by scoring the first five points out of the locker room to take its only lead of the game at 41-40 just 29 seconds into the final 20 minutes of play. The Pack, though, responded 22-11 run over the next 10-plus minutes to take a 62-52 lead following a dunk by Adam. The run was keyed by six points each from Sanders, Blair, and Adam, with all of Adam's points coming on dunks.
The Mountain Lions, who were swept by the Pack this season, scored three of the next five points to pull within 64-55 with 7:43 remaining, before the Pack scored five straight points on a lay-up by Adam and a trey from Sanders gave the Pack its biggest lead of the game at 69-55 with 6:31 remaining.
UCCS would mount another charge as they scored 12 of the next 22 points to cut the Pack's lead to 74-67 following a trey from Xavier Martinez with 1:04 left in the game. The Pack would close the game by making four straight free throws and capping the scoring with a fast break dunk from Blair with 19 seconds left in the game.
Brody Hull paced the Mountain Lions with 18 points and seven rebounds, while Marzouq Ibn Abdur-Razaaq added 17 points, and Martinez tallied 14 points, along with four assists and three steals in the setback.
The ThunderWolves controlled the glass, outrebounding the Mountain Lions 36-21, including 29 defensive boards with junior forward Kyren Allen (Commerce City, Colo./Trinidad State) and Blair each collecting nine boards. CSU Pueblo also held a 34-15 advantage in bench scoring and matched UCCS with 36 points in the paint.
Sophomore guard Mac Terry (Castle Pines, Colo./South Dakota Mines) facilitated the Pack offense with a game-high eight assists, while senior guard Sam Howery (Colorado Springs, Colo./Air Academy) added five assists in the win. The Pack finished the game with 25 assists on 30 made baskets.
UCCS, though, won the turnover battle as they had just eight turnovers, while the Pack committed 16 turnovers that led to 16 points for the Mountain Lions. The Pack scored 15 points off the UCCS' turnovers.
The Mountain Lions finished the game shooting 41.5 percent from the field and just 19 percent (4-for-21) from the 3-point line on the night.
UCCS also held a 28-12 edge in free throws as the Mountain Lions were 21-for-28 (75 percent) at the line and the Pack was 10-for-12 (83.3 percent) from the charity stripe.
CSU Pueblo led for 37:47 of game time and never trailed by more than one possession after halftime.
The Pack will begin its final road trip of the regular season beginning on Thursday, Feb. 12, as it travels to Lakewood, Colo., for an 8 p.m. game against Colorado Christian (11-11 overall, 6-8 RMAC). The Pack collected a 70-49 win over the Cougars in Massari Arena on Jan. 10.
