Coming off of an 54-85 loss at Colorado Mesa on Friday night, the CSM women’s basketball team rebounded in strong fashion on Saturday night to take down Western State in Gunnison 75-47.
The early stages of the first half were kept close, for every time Mines would jump to a sizeable lead, WSU would find a way to fight back. However, up only 21-17 late in the half, CSM fired off a series of quick scoring drives to take a 29-20 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The Lady Orediggers carried their momentum into the start of the second half as well, opening the period with a 10-2 scoring drive to take a 39-22 lead. Throughout the rest of the contest, WSU could never mount a substantial comeback, only climbing back to within 15 points of the Orediggers at any given time, eventually falling to CSM by the final score of 75-47.
Taylor Helbig led all scorers with 22 points (18 from three point range) to go along with two each of rebounds, assists, and steals. Sam Rusk shot 3-for-3 from the three point line as part of her 12 points on the night, and Courtney Gallo contributed 15 points off of the Mines bench.
CSM easily outshot Western State from the field (48.2% vs. 30.4%), including hitting over half of their shots from beyond the three point arc (53.8%). Mines also outrebounded WSU 42-34, as well as notching more assists, more steals, and fewer turnovers than the Mountaineers.
Mines women’s basketball will be back in action next Friday night here in Golden as they take on Metro State on Play 4 Kay Pink Day. That game tips off at 6pm at Lockridge Arena here at CSM.