GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The Regis University women's basketball team arrived at its second stop of a three-game road trip on Saturday at Brownson Arena, where the Rangers fell victim to strong defense in a 66-55 loss against Colorado Mesa.
 
How It Happened: Holding a commanding 55-42 lead with 6:41 left in the fourth quarter, senior forward Kelsey Siemons sank the first of two free throws to grow the Mavericks' advantage to 56-42, which was out of reach for Regis.
 
Colorado Mesa led by as many as 17 when senior guard Kylyn Rigsby converted her second of two successful free throws to bring CMU to a 62-45 lead with 3:29 left in regulation.
 
Scoring the contest's final five points, RU did not go down without a fight. Freshman guard Erin Fry hit a jumper at the 1:13 mark, and senior guard Emma Sterkel made a 3-pointer with only 27 seconds on the clock before the final buzzer. Sterkel's trey brought the game to a 66-55 score, which was the final result.
 
A layup by Rigsby gave the Mavericks an early 2-0 lead 25 seconds into the contest, which was answered with a layup from senior forward Whitney Jacob at the 8:55 mark of the first quarter.
 
An offensive see-saw battle that ensued over the next several minutes included Jacob's trey, which gave the Rangers their first lead, 5-4, with 8:22 remaining in the first.
 
Regis led by as many as six when Sterkel made a free throw with only 3 seconds left in the first, making the score, 22-16, which was where it stood after 10 minutes of play.
 
While maintaining its lead, RU's longest stretch of points in the second was five on account of Jacob's 3-pointer and senior guard Tashika Burrell's jumper, which occurred at the 7:14 and 6:43 marks, respectively. Burrell's jumper gave the Rangers a 29-23 lead.
 
However, Colorado Mesa later responded with a lead-changing, half-ending, 7-0 run, coming to form on a trey from Siemons with 4:19 to go in the first half and concluding on a jumper from redshirt sophomore guard Natalie Bartle. Bartle's basket occurred with 58 seconds on the clock and inched CMU ahead of Regis, 32-31, where the score sat going into the intermission.
 
The Mavericks proceeded to tack on five more points to expand the run to a 12-0 one in the opening minute of the third quarter as a result of Rigsby's 3-pointer just 7 seconds in and  senior forward Sierra McNicol's layup. The latter points brought Colorado Mesa a 37-31 advantage at the 9:13 mark.
 
After sophomore forward Morgan L. Smith's layup with 8:13 remaining in the third, senior forward Grace O'Neill brought the deficit to within one, 37-36, on a 3-pointer with 6:55 to go in the third.
 
CMU then began to pull away from RU with an 8-0 run, started by Rigsby's trey at the third quarter's 3:39 mark and capped off by Morgan Myers' layup at the 1:27 clock reading, sending the Mavericks to a 48-38 advantage.
 
Rigsby then made five more points to close the third through a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws. The free throws came with 4 seconds remaining in the third to give Colorado Mesa a sizable, 53-40 lead going into the final frame.
 
This eventual personal 7-0 run in favor of CMU continued into the fourth quarter for Rigsby, who added a jumper 45 seconds into the fourth to cap the run while giving the Mavericks a 55-40 advantage.
 
O'Neill finally ended the Rangers' 4:02 scoreless drought with a jumper at the 6:57 mark of the fourth to cut the Regis deficit to 55-42.
 
Game Notes: Jacob scored a team-high 15 points and tacked on nine rebounds and one assist. Burrell recorded 12 points, two assists, a share of the game-high two steals, and a game-high three blocks. O'Neill finished with 11 points and five rebounds. Smith contributed a double-double of 10 points and a game-high 12 rebounds to go along with one assist and two blocks. Fry had two points, three rebounds, a team-high three assists, and two blocks.
 
Points off turnovers cost RU, which was outscored by Colorado Mesa by a margin of 21-9.
 
The Rangers converted 18 of 54 (33.3 percent) in the paint, seven of 25 (28 percent) from 3-point range, and 12 of 16 (75 percent) at the free-throw line, while CMU finished with a 24-for-65 (36.9 percent) effort from the field, a 7-for-22 (31.8 percent) showing from the arc, and an 11-for-15 (73.3 percent) performance from the charity stripe.
 
Up Next for the Rangers: Regis falls to a 2-6 record overall and a 2-5 record in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) play. RU concludes its three-game road trip on Tuesday at Gallogly Events Center, where it will take on UC-Colorado Springs (2-5, 2-5 RMAC) at 5:30 p.m.