Courtesy of GothunderWolves.com
The Colorado State University-Pueblo women’s basketball team won their first post-season game since 2010 and matched a school-record for wins in a season as they claimed a hard-fought 51-46 win over visiting Metro State University in the quarterfinal round of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Shootout, Tuesday night here in Massari Arena.
The Pack never trailed although the Roadrunners did tie the game at 37 with 8:35 to go in the second half before some turnovers and cold shooting down the stretch cost the visitors a chance.
Meanwhile, CSU-Pueblo, the tournament’s second seed, improved to 22-7 overall and will move on to face sixth-seeded Black Hills State, which claimed an 81-71 upset at third-seeded Fort Lewis, in Friday’s tournament semifinals. That game will be played at top-seeded Colorado Mesa, which defeated UC-Colorado Springs. The Mavericks will host fourth-seeded Regis in the other semifinal as the Rangers defeated Colorado Christian at home in the first quarterfinal of the day.
Metro State sees their season end at 13-14.
In Tuesday’s victory, the ThunderWolves received a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double from Paige Ramm. Alex Evans chipped in 11 points while Taylor Fox chipped in 10 points. All three were named to the All-RMAC squads earlier in the day
Metro State was led by 12 points from Cassie Lambrecht and 13 boards from Tai Jensen, who went just 1-for-6 from the floor, a microcosm of the night as the ThunderWolves held the Roadrunners to just 29.8 percent (17-57) shooting.
The Pack did not shoot that much better as they scored at only a 32.7 percent (17-52 clip). However, the ThunderWolves committed just four turnovers and forced the Roadrunners into 10, a major difference in the game.
The ThunderWolves got out to a 10-0 start in the first 4:11 of the game before the Roadrunners clawed back to within 10-5 before CSU-Pueblo maintained a single-digit lead through the rest of the half.
Leading 25-21 at the half, the Pack would build a 37-28 lead with 13:22 to go before the Roadrunners best run of the night, a 9-0 spurt, tied the game.
However, the Roadrunners would be held to just one bucket for the next seven plus minutes as the ThunderWolves went up 43-39 on a Jenay Locke 3-pointer followed by five made free throws on six attempts to put the game on ice.
The ThunderWolves defeated Black Hills State (14-13) both times during the regular season.
