Durango’s Mason Rowland showed everyone she could produce at a high level in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in her freshman season.
Rowland had an incredible high school sports career at Durango High School in volleyball, basketball and soccer.
In her senior year on the basketball court, Rowland led the Demons to a 23-3 record and a 5A state semifinals appearance while averaging 17.9 points per game. She earned First Team All-State honors.
Rowland transferred her production from the high school level to the Division II level at Colorado Mesa University. Last season, she averaged 14.6 points per game and 5.2 rebounds per game which were both second-best on the team.
The Mavericks finished first in the RMAC with an 18-4 record and were 25-7 overall after losing in the second round of the NCAA Division II tournament.
Rowland was rewarded for her play by winning RMAC Freshman of the Year and was Second Team All-RMAC.
“I tried to go in with no expectations, just because I didn't really know what to expect,” Rowland said about her freshman year. “But it was great. My teammates were amazing. My coaches were awesome. The more time I spent with the program and learning the offenses and stuff like that, the more I thrived. It showed on the court. We all just worked really well together and toward the end we figured it all out and it helped us. We had a good season.”
The 5-foot-7-inch rising sophomore guard enjoyed playing in the NCAA tournament and loved the facilities at the host site Texas Woman’s University. She said she could feel the heightened competitive energy and level of play.
Rowland just returned to Durango after spending June in Grand Junction helping run the Colorado Mesa summer camps. She said it was a good time to practice, play pickup and lift with her team.
Since she’s been back in Durango, Roland has been working out with Durango High School girls basketball assistant coach Viki Thyfault. Rowland said they developed a great relationship during her four years on varsity. Rowland would go over to Thyfault’s house during COVID-19 to workout. She loves working with Thyfault and said Thyfault helps her, “beyond words.”
Rowland says she works out with a basketball in her hand for 1.5 hours a day and lifts four times a week with the workouts her strength coach at Colorado Mesa sends her.
During these workouts, Rowland is looking to improve her ability to read defenses and make the right play. She wants to distribute better and take better shots so the team is always taking high-percentage shots.
Rowland’s 5.2 rpg is impressive for a guard. She loves rebounding and knows it’s beneficial for her team to have a guard that rebounds.
Her rebounding and play was helped by having RMAC Player of the Year Olivia Reed as her teammate. Reed averaged 17.2 ppg and 11.3 rpg last season and will return next year along with most of last year’s Mavericks squad.
“We get along off the court really well,” Rowland said about her connection with Reed. “So that always helps when you have a connection with someone built that's outside of the court. So then when we get on to the court, it's just even better. In the postseason and over the summer, we played a lot of pickup and got to play freely without any sets. So we would run a lot of on-ball screens, we could look for the pullup or the dish, her layups, her popping, all that sort of stuff. So hopefully next year, we can just get a really good connection going that way it'll just fuel us both.”
Rowland has also been working on her outside shot after shooting 33% from 3-point range last season. She also has been working on finishing through contact. Despite averaging a team-high 5.18 free throws per game, Rowland said she didn’t finish enough and-one attempts.
After being named RMAC Freshman of the Year and Second Team All-RMAC, Rowland isn’t concerned about future individual awards and wants to continue to help her team win in any way possible. She’s looking forward to competing for another RMAC championship and making a deeper run in the Division II NCAA tournament. But to get there, Rowland knows she and her teammates need to focus on one game at a time.
With her awards and play, Rowland has surely drawn some attention from some Division I schools looking for a younger skilled guard.
“I have not talked to anybody because I love the school that I'm at right now,” Rowland said. “Mesa was a perfect fit for me and I can't see myself anywhere else as of right now. I hope it is the same for the next few years. I started my career at Mesa and I hope to finish it there. I am just so happy right now so we'll see where it takes me.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
