RAPID CITY, S.D. --- The South Dakota School of Mines men's basketball team will host a pair of Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference games this coming weekend after a clean sweep of Colorado Christian and Colorado School of Mines last week at home. The Hardrockers have improved to 5-0 on their home court at the King Center in Rapid City and are hoping to add to that on Friday and Saturday.
 
On Friday, the Hardrockers defeated Colorado Christian, 85-72, followed by one of the biggest wins in program history, dispatching of the NCAA Div. II 18^th ranked Colorado Mines on Saturday night, 74-63. This win brought the Hardrockers to 6-4 on the season and 2-2 in conference play.
 
"That win is a big accomplishment for us. Finally, we proved that we can compete at a high level," said senior basketball player Marco Pascolo, who commented on the big win over Colorado Mines and what it means to the team. "We need to carry that over to next weekend. Our main focus for now is getting ready for Chadron and doing whatever we can to get the win."
 
Saturday's victory was also a milestone for Hardrocker men's basketball coach Jason Henry, who earned his 150^th win as head coach of the Hardrockers.
 
This Friday the Hardrockers will host Chadron State. The Eagles are just 1-7 on the season, but that win did come against RMAC opponent University of Colorado Colorado Springs – a team that narrowly defeated the Hardrockers (64-62) earlier this season. The Eagles have given up just over 80 points per game so far while the Hardrockers' defense have allowed 70 per contest.
 
Chadron State guards Warren Gordon and Darius Polley are averaging double-digit points on the season, combining for nearly 30 markers per contest.
 
Saturday night the Hardrockers will host Regis University. The Rangers are 7-3 on the season. After winning their first six games of the season Regis has stalled, going 1-3 in their first four conference matchups.
 
Regis heads into the weekend scoring 80.6 points per game while the Rangers' defense is allowing 76.1 points per game.  The Hardrocker defense, which is allowing 70.1 point per game, just came off two games allowing 72 points on Friday and 63 on Saturday to off.
 
The Rangers boast the league's top offensive rebounder in junior Dexter Sienko. He has tallied 33 so far this season, getting 3.3 second-chance opportunities a game. He is also the RMAC's seventh leading scorer (176 points) averaging 17.6 markers a game.
 
SD Mines leads the conference in defensive rebounds, averaging 28.5 per game and second in defensive rebounding percentage (740) grabbing 233 defensive boards to their opponents' 82 total offensive boards.
 
Hardrocker senior Konor Kulas is second in the RMAC for total points (204), averaging 20.4 per game; second in total rebounds (87) coming down with 8.7 per game; and third in field goal percentage (.694) converting 74-115 attempts so far this season all while averaging 32.4 minutes each time out.
 
As defenses have started devoting a lot of their attention to shutting Kulas down, other members of the Hardrockers are stepping up and delivering. Junior Brian Orr is a legitimate threat on the perimeter and is good at driving to the basket. He is averaging 11.2 points a game.
 
Senior Marco Pascolo is another SD Mines player that is doing well. He averages 10.9 points per game, getting it done in the paint or from behind the arc. Senior Jamall Taylor (9.7 ppg) and freshman Jake Heath (8.7 ppg) have also proven themselves as the season progresses.
  
"We've got some talent and we know we can compete," Henry said. "We are on a mission right now to make sure we are successful in the conference and to make sure we can compete with teams."
 
Friday's bout is slated for a 7:30 p.m. start and Saturday's game is set to tipoff at 5:30 p.m. Both games can be viewed on the RMAC network by logging into Stretch Internet at: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/sdsmt/ .