RAPID CITY, S.D. --- The South Dakota School of Mines men's basketball team looks to get back to its winning ways this weekend as the Hardrockers take their first road trip in four games, traveling to Las Vegas, N.M., Friday to face New Mexico Highlands followed by a highly touted rematch with Colorado Mines Saturday afternoon in Golden, Colo.

SD Mines has been chomping-at-the-bit to get back into Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action after Regis University ruined the Hardrockers' perfect home record on Dec. 17, falling to the Rangers, 78-64.
In fact, the 'Rockers had rattled off three straight at home before that game (Colorado Christian, Colorado Mines and Chadron State), and are now 7-5 on the season and 3-3 in the league --- currently ranked eighth in the conference standings.

But next on the schedule is New Mexico Highlands. The Cowboys have won their last two outings and are currently 4-7 overall and 2-4 in the RMAC. NMHU knocked off Western State Colorado (90-84) and Colorado Mesa (90-78) in conference action back on Dec. 16-17.

New Mexico Highlands' offense puts up 74 points per game while the defense has been allowing 81.5 points each time out.

The Cowboys have three players that are dishing in double figures each game. Senior forward Ron Lawton averages 13.9 ppg, senior forward Marlon Johnson contributes with 13.4 ppg and senior guard Kieran Woods puts in 13.1 ppg.

"New Mexico Highlands is an athletic team with a lot of good players," said Hardrocker men's basketball head coach Jason Henry. "They are tough to beat at home with one of the top shot blockers (Johnson) in the conference and the Nation."

Colorado Mines, ranked 18^th last time SD Mines faced the Hardrockers, have since bounced back after falling to both Black Hills State and SD Mines, defeating MSU-Denver (73-51) and University of Colorado Colorado Springs (81-60) before the holiday break, and now sit at 9-3 on the season and are 4-2 in the RMAC.

The Orediggers' offense is scoring 78.1 points per game while the defense is allowing a league best 64.7 points per game. Colorado Mines is also first in defensive rebounding percentage (.768) just ahead of SD Mines in second (.746).

"Colorado Mines is another team that is really good when playing at home," Henry said. "When we played last time (Dec. 10) they didn't shoot the ball well. I am expecting that to change this time out."

Colorado Mines senior guard/forward Gokul Natesan leads the team averaging 20.3 ppg, junior guard Luke Schroepfer puts up 12.4 ppg and senior forward Caleb Waitsman averages 10.7 ppg, and leads the team in rebounding, averaging 6.6 each time out.

Natesan is the conference's second leading scorer, behind Hardrocker senior Konor Kulas, who is averaging 20.9 points per game. Kulas is also second in the league behind NMHU's Johnson in rebounding averaging 9.3 a game.

After Kulas, the Hardrockers are seeing contributions from junior Brian Orr and senior Marco Pascolo who are both earning 10.6 ppg, while senior Jamall Taylor is averaging 9.3 ppg and freshman Jake Heath is putting in 8.8 ppg.

As a team, the Hardrockers are scoring 72 points and allowing 70.8 points each game. SD Mines also boast the league's top rebounding defense, allowing just 28 rpg by opposing squads.

"To be successful this weekend, we have to do a better job of taking care of the ball," Henry said. "We have to hit our shots, we have to guard well and just continue to do the things that we do well."

Both Friday's and Saturday's games will tipoff at 3 p.m. (MST) and can be viewed live on the RMAC Network by logging onto Stretch Internet at: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/sdsmt/ .