Mavs Begin Play In NCAA Regional

It's been an amazing season for the Colorado Mesa  University women's basketball team. An RMAC regular season title, an RMAC Shootout Championship, and with a 28-1 record, the number one seed in the NCAA South Central Regional that begins today at Brownson Arena in Grand Junction. But as historic as this season has been, the Mavericks are hoping to play 6 more games. That's how many  more wins it will take to win a national championship.The Mavericks are still ranked #4 in the USA Today Coaches' Poll, and every other team in the regional has at least 5 losses.Only Midwestern is ranked in the top 25. But this is March Madness, where rankings, records, and past history become meaningless. If history were a factor, the Mavs would be making plans for Saturday's regional. But it's not.

The Mavericks open the tournament  tonight against a familiar foe -  RMAC rival Fort Lewis. This is the fourth meeting this season between these two teams, and the third in less than two weeks. The Mavericks have won all three. But CMU Head Basketball Coach says his team is just focused on playing good basketball. "They (Fort Lewis) are a good team and at this point in the season you're going to see the great teams, so we aren't going to worry about the name on the jersey and just go out and play."

The Regional  begins at 12 noon with #3 seed St. Mary's (22-6) against #6 seed Metro State(21-8). The second game of the first session at 2:30 features #2 seed Midwestern State(24-5) against #7 Tarleton State(19-9).

The second session of the day begins at 6:00 with #1 seed CMU(28-1) against #8 Fort Lewis(18-10). The winner will play at 7:30 Saturday night against  the winner of tonight's second game featuring #4  Texas-Permian Basin(20-7) and  #5 Abilene Christian(21-6),

The championship game is scheduled for Monday night at 7:00 at Brownson Arena. Reserved seating is sold out for tonight's Mavs game, but general admission tickets are available for $12.

(Zane Mathews provides play-by-play for Mavericks basketball on AM 1230 KEXO and on line at www.kexo1230.com)