ALAMOSA, Colo (February 10^th, 2017) --- The Adams State women's basketball team gave a fantastic effort tonight in Alamosa, but fell short to Colorado Mesa by a final score of 85-56.
 
The Grizzlies arguably played just as good, if not better than the Mavericks tonight. The big difference maker was three point shooting by the conference's number two team. Mesa shot 60.9% from downtown to obtain 42 of their total points.
 
Facing an 11-3 deficit early, DeShea Wilkes drained a three to give ASU some life. At the end of one, the Grizzlies were only down 19-10. CMU kept their distance for the first part of the second period. A jumper by Maddy Merschel at the 4:10 mark cut the lead to 23-20. A Karleigh Cooley free throw cut the deficit by another point, but that would be as close as Adams would get in the first half. The halftime score was 34-25 in favor of CMU. Both teams had committed 12 turnovers at the break, but Mesa had already sunk seven three-pointers to give them a slight edge.
 
The three-balls continued to fly in the third as the Mavericks started to pull away. The deficit entering the fourth was 14. Karleigh Cooley would get the Grizzlies as close as 12 on several occasions in the final quarter but the Mavericks would go on a 10-0 run from that point on their way to the win.
 
A very aggressive press forced 17 turnovers resulting in 20 points for Adams. Arianna Barnes led the team with three steals. The offense benefited from 11 second chance points and six buckets from behind the arc. The Mavericks shot 70% from downtown, adding another seven three pointers in the second half. Mesa connected on 14 three pointers in the game. Brianna Reyna and Cydney McHenry each had 14 points to lead ASU. Jaylyn Duran dropped 25 points and went 5-6 from three to lead CMU.    
 
The Grizzlies are right back at it tomorrow in Plachy against Western State. Tip-off is set for 5:30pm.  
 
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