DENVER, Colo. – With a share of the 2023-2024 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title on the line, the Regis University women's basketball team weathered the Colorado State University Pueblo ThunderWolves storm Saturday night and exploded in the fourth quarter to take their final regular season home game, 70-65.
The Rangers (23-5 overall, 18-4 RMAC) opened the fourth quarter with a 9-0 and scored 23 points against a physical ThunderWolves (16-14 overall, 11-11 RMAC) squad.Â
"We knew what was on the line. We wanted it. We knew it was going to be a super tough matchup for us and we just continued to compete with every single possession,"Â said Regis women's basketball head coach, Molly Marrin. "When we got those couple stops when we went on that run, to see our team that fired up and showing what we can do when we're inspired certainly inspires us even now."
HOW IT HAPPENED
A back-and-forth first half meant that the Rangers were only up by two after the first half, but come the fourth quarter, Regis exploded offensively and shot 50% from the field (6-for-12) to go up by as many as 14 at the 4:38 mark.
But the ThunderWolves were not going down without a fight as they answered Regis' 9-0 run with a 13-2 run that lasted two minutes and 46 seconds, from 3:17 to 0:31 remaining in the game.
In those last 30 seconds, however, four free throws from the Rangers came at a pivotal moment as it widened the lead to five with 12 seconds left.
CSU Pueblo's Alisha Little shot a three-pointer with four seconds remaining but missed wide right as graduate student guard Josey Ryan grabbed the defensive rebound to seal the win.
"We knew we wanted to go after it and we knew it was going to be tough," Marrin said. "It wasn't going to be handed to us, we were going to have to take it. It's a mindset thing, we have a championship mindset. We just have them focus possession by possession, get stops, defend and rebound and know that our offense will come out of that. We talk about huddling tight, making sure that we're playing Regis basketball and not somebody else's."
That Regis basketball came through at the Regis Field House as they capitalized on CSU Pueblo's defensive transitions and scored 23 points on the fast break.
Standing out on the stat sheet was graduate student guard Josey Ryan who poured in a team-high 27 points, her second-highest point total on the season. The fifth-year went off and shot 47.6% (10-for-21) from the floor and 3-for-7 (42.8%) from downtown.
Joining her in offensive performance was senior guard Erin Fry who contributed 22 of her own points, shooting 40% (6-for-15) from the floor and 50% (2-for-4) from three.
On the other end of the court, graduate student forward Morgan L. Smith grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds to move her to third on the team in total rebounds (151).
"Josey is just in attack mode. We talk about playing hungry, she's starving," said Marrin. "Fry just loves the big moments and she steps up and just shows her toughness and why she was player of the year last year. Morgan had a tough assignment with Alisha Little. She held her to 17 and eight, well under her averages and I think she only had one block. So Morgan had a huge defensive assignment so for her to understand that and get those 11 boards in addition to doing what she did defensively, it's incredible. She did exactly what was asked of her."
GAME NOTES
UP NEXT
With the win, the Rangers clinch a share of the 2023-2024 RMAC regular season title. They are the #2 seed in the RMAC tournament, and will host Colorado Christian University on Tuesday. Tipoff is set for 6 PM at the Regis Field House.
