Mason Rowland showed that she was a winning player at Durango High School, and she’s shown it again as part of the Colorado Mesa University women’s basketball team.
Rowland, a 2023 graduate of Durango High School and a three-sport star in volleyball, basketball and soccer, led the Demons to the state semifinals her senior year, and her winning ways have translated to the Colorado Mesa women’s basketball team.
Now a redshirt sophomore, Rowland is one of Colorado Mesa’s best players on a team that’s ranked third in Division II women’s college basketball.
The Mavericks are 33-1 overall heading into the NCAA tournament. They finished 20-0 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference regular season and won the conference tournament. Colorado Mesa became the first women’s basketball team in the RMAC to go undefeated in conference play and win the conference tournament since Nebraska Kearney in 1995-1996.
Colorado Mesa was successful before Rowland showed up, but she has been a big part of the team’s success since she was a freshman. In 2023-2024, the Mavericks finished 25-7 overall and won the RMAC regular season title after going 18-4 in conference play. Rowland averaged 14.6 points per game, 5.2 rebounds per game and won freshman of the year in the RMAC.
After tearing her ACL early in her sophomore year, Rowland returned this season, and the Mavericks have had arguably the most dominant team in conference history. The Mavericks have steamrolled their opponents by an average of 24.6 points. In conference play, that margin jumps to 25.5 points. Colorado Mesa won all but one conference game by at least 11 points. The Mavericks had nine wins by 30+ points over RMAC opponents in the regular season.
Colorado Mesa stepped it up even more against the conference’s best teams in the RMAC tournament. The Mavericks averaged 93 points per game in the tournament, winning by an average of 35.6 points.
Rowland has stepped up her game in her redshirt sophomore year, averaging 18.3 PPG, 6.0 RPG and 3.9 assists per game. She’s the only player in the conference to be in the top five in scoring, assists and top 15 in rebounding. Rowland was named First Team All-RMAC and had her best performance of the season in the RMAC tournament championship, tying a career-high with 35 points and an astounding 19-19 from the free-throw line in the win over the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.
All that’s left for Rowland and the Mavericks is NCAA tournament success. The Mavericks haven’t gotten out of the second round since Rowland has been there, and Colorado Mesa hasn’t made the Elite Eight since 2013.
The No. 3-seeded Mavericks are hoping to change that, starting with their opening-round matchup against No. 6 Lubbock Christian on Friday at 11 a.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
