RAPID CITY, S.D. --- Now that the holiday break is complete, the South Dakota School of Mines women's basketball team is getting back into the thick of Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference competition with one of the longest road trips of the season this weekend.
The Lady Hardrockers travel to Las Vegas, N.M., to face the New Mexico Highlands Cowgirls Friday afternoon, followed by a rematch against the Colorado Mines Orediggers Saturday in Golden, Colo. Both games are slated for a 1 p.m. (MST) start.
New Mexico Highlands enters the weekend with a 2-8 overall record and 1-5 mark in the conference and sit just below SD Mines, who is 3-8 on the season and an identical 1-5 in the RMAC. The Cowgirls are 14
th in the conference standings, dropping their last five games.
NMHU ranks toward the bottom of the RMAC in many categories. The Cowgirls are second-to-last in scoring defense, giving up over 70 points a game, and third-to-last in scoring offense, averaging just under 55 points per game. They are last in turnover margin causing their opponents to commit 12.7 a game.
The Cowgirls are led by sophomore forward Kaylani Maiava, who is averaging nearly 14 points a game while freshman Ari Baca is scoring just over 10 markers a contest and has played herself into a starting role for NMHU. Maiava also leads the team in rebounds, bringing down 5.9 a game.
Saturday, the Lady 'Rockers will get another crack at Colorado Mines, a team with an 8-7 overall record and 4-2 mark heading into the weekend. The Orediggers face Westminster College Friday afternoon.
Colorado Mines split its second-straight RMAC weekend back on Dec. 16-17. First the Orediggers hit a game winner to down rival MSU Denver, 59-57. The Orediggers then fell at UCCS, 73-65, as they were unable to slow down a hot shooting Mountain Lions squad.
Since the RMAC portion of the schedule began, sophomore guard Emily Bailey is averaging a league third-best 18.8 points per game and shooting at 48 percent from the field. She is also pulling down 4.5 rebounds a contest, and is sixth in the conference at 1.2 blocks per game. Sophomore guard Cassidy Budge has become the conference's third best shooter in both made three-pointers (33) and three-point field goal percentage (.391).
"Well obviously with Colorado Mines we've proven we match up pretty well with them," said Hardrocker women's basketball head coach
Ryan Larsen. "They are very similar to us in the way they play and the way they guard. So that's always a good opponent for us. Knowing the confidence that we were just a couple possessions away from possibly winning that last game (Dec. 10), gives us great motivation."
The Hardrockers nearly took down Colorado Mines the last time out, falling to the Orediggers in overtime, 64-61, back on Dec. 10 in Rapid City. The Hardrockers are looking to rebound from a three game skid and get back in the RMAC hunt.
SD Mines is currently scoring 63.1 points per game and giving up 65 points per game on defense. They are second in the conference in assists, averaging 15.2 per game and are blocking 2.5 shots per game.
Senior
Megan Rohrer paces SD Mines averaging 9.3 points per game and is averaging 6.1 rebounds. Junior
Payton Humpal is also right there, putting in 9.2 points per game. Freshman
Anna Haugen leads the team in rebounds with 70 and junior
Krista Showalter leads the conference in assists, averaging 5.4 per game.
"When we take care of the basketball, we can put up decent numbers on the scoreboard," Larsen added. "When we rebound the ball well --- that's good --- especially on nights when we're defensively better."
Both games can be found on the RMAC Network by logging onto Stretch Internet at:
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/sdsmt/
