SPEARFISH, S.D. – Colorado State University Pueblo men's basketball saw its historic 2025-26 season come to a close here Friday evening as the No. 3 seeded ThunderWolves fell 57-56 to No. 2 seeded Colorado Mesa in the semifinals of the 2026 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament presented by Under Armour here at the Donald E. Young Center on the campus of Black Hills State University.

With the loss, the Pack closes the season with a 22-8 overall record, while Colorado Mesa improved to 21-9 overall and advances to Saturday's championship game. Friday's setback snapped a season-high nine game win streak for the Pack.

The 22 wins are the most since the 1997-98 squad also posted a 22-8 record. The semifinal round loss was the fifth straight for the program since earning a 78-75 win over MSU Denver in the semifinals of the 1998 RMAC Tournament. The Pack finished as runners-up in the 1998 tournament as they lost 85-62 to Nebraska-Kearney.

"All the credit goes to Colorado Mesa. They are a well-coached, tough team and they made more plays than we did down the stretch tonight," CSU Pueblo first-year head coach Zach Ruebesam said in the post-game press conference. "I love our team's fight. I love their togetherness and these guys did everything I asked them to do all season. What I am most proud of is, 10 months ago, we took over a program that was looking for an identity, and I think we did things this season that no one thought was possible in Pueblo this quickly.

"This program has a culture now. It has an identity and it has a lot of things to build off moving forward."

Colorado Mesa, who led 27-26 at the half, scored the go-ahead basket by Ben Henderson with 53 seconds remaining, but the Pack had two possessions down the stretch to retake the lead, but the first possession ended on a missed three-pointer from junior guard Dylan Sanders (Aurora, Colo./Pearl River CC) with 28 seconds left.

After the Pack were forced to commit three straight fouls to get into the bonus, CMU's Ty Allred stepped to the free throw line for a 1-and-1 attempt with nine seconds left. Allred missed the front-end of the 1-and-1 and sophomore guard/forward Jordan Blair (Keller, Texas/Keller Central) collected the rebound and drove down court, but his lay-up with one second left fell short and sealed Colorado Mesa's victory.

The ThunderWolves battled back from an early 12-point deficit and built a seven-point advantage midway through the second half at 54-47 following a 3-pointer from Sanders, but the Mavericks, who have now won 11 straight games against the Pack, closed the game on a 9-2 run, including scoring the final eight points of the game after Blair made two free throws with 4:54 left to give the Pack a 56-49 lead.

"I wanted us to keep attacking, but I didn't think we were quite aggressive enough trying to drive it to the rim there late. I thought they (Colorado Mesa) were more aggressive late and it came down to us not getting enough stops," said Ruebesam, who is the winningest first-year coach in CSU Pueblo's four-year school history since 1962-63. "We scored enough points, 55, to win the game, but we've got to get stops there late in the game and we didn't get them tonight."

Sophomore guard Mac Terry (Castle Pines, Colo./South Dakota Mines) scored a season-high 16 points and added a career-high nine rebounds in the loss. In addition to Terry, Sanders tallied 13 points and junior forward Kyren Allen (Commerce City, Colo./Trinidad State) had 10 points, including scoring eight of the those points in the second half as both teams scored 30 points each after halftime.

Blair finished the night one-point shy of double figures as he tallied nine points and added six rebounds and four assists.

In the first half, CMU jumped out to a 21-9 lead just less than nine minutes into the game, but the Pack outscored the Mavericks, 15-6, over the final 10-plus minutes of the opening half to cut CMU's lead to 27-26 at the half. The run was keyed by eight points from Terry and capped by a basket from Sanders right before the buzzer. On the play, Sanders was fouled, but he missed the free throw. 

Allred paced Colorado Mesa with 16 points, while Henderson and Harvey White each tallied 11 points and Clayton Jewell chipped in with a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds.

The Pack finished the game shooting 35 percent from the field and 30 percent (9-for-30) from the 3-point line, while CMU shot 42 percent from the field and 25 percent from long distance.

Colorado Mea outrebounded the ThunderWolves 44–28 and scored 32 points in the paint, helping offset CSU Pueblo's nine three-pointers in the contest.

The Pack forced 15 turnovers led to 10 points, while CMU scored six points off the Pack's seven turnovers.

Friday's game featured just 22 fouls and a combined 15 free throws as the Pack were 5-for-7 (71.4 percent) at the line, while CMU was 7-for-8 (87.5 percent) at the line.

Friday's game marked the final game of CSU Pueblo's four-member senior class that consists of guard Landen Dvorsky (Colorado Springs, Colo./Liberty), guard Sam Howery (Colorado Springs, Colo./St. Mary's), forward Andon Mindrup (Colorado Springs, Colo./St. Mary's) and center Kaleb Mitchell (Fountain, Colo./Northern State). 

"Sam's impact on our team this year has been tremendous. This team has taken on his identity and he's always been about energy," the Pack coach added about Howery. "I'm so proud of him and the way he's continued to fight and continues to lead and be about all the right things and it takes guys like Sam (Howery) to help flip a program and turn it around."