RAPID CITY, S.D. --- The South Dakota Mines men's basketball team is approaching one of their longest road trips of the season. Last weekend the Hardrockers split a pair of conference home games taking their overall season record to 9-7, and 5-5 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play.
 
"This is probably our toughest two weeks of the year," said Hardrocker men's basketball head coach Jason Henry, "Our players are just starting classes, the teams that we play are tough, and the lengths of the trips all make this a challenging time of year."
 
The Hardrockers will travel to Alamosa, Colo., for a clash with Adams State on Friday. The Grizzlies are 3-7 in RMAC play, but their season may be turning for the better. They picked up a huge win their last time out, defeating MSU-Denver for the first time since 2011.
 
Adams State has one of the highest scoring offenses in the conference, putting up 83.8 points per game (third in the RMAC). While their high octane attitude works on one end of the floor the Grizzlies have allowed over 85 points per game ---worst in the RMAC --- at the other end.
 
Saturday could prove to be the toughest game of the Hardrockers season thus far in Durango, Colo. Fort Lewis College will host the Hardrockers. The Skyhawks have dropped out of the NCAA Div. II Top 25 for the first time this week, however, they are still first in the RMAC with an 8-2 conference record.
 
"Fort Lewis won the conference last year and only had one loss," Henry said "We match up with them very well and I'm excited for this game."
 
Fort Lewis is the only RMAC team averaging more than 90 points per game. This is largely thanks to guards Rasmus Bach and Joshua Blaylock who average 20.2 and 19.5 points per game. Bach and Blaylock are the Top 2 scorers in the RMAC.
 
Coach Henry noted that the Hardrockers have defeated three of the top four teams in the RMAC. This is their first clash against Fort Lewis this season, the final team left of the top four still undefeated by the Hardrockers.
 
The Hardrockers will look for senior Konor Kulas to continue his productive season. Kulas is currently sixth in the RMAC in scoring and second in rebounding. The Appleton, Wis., native took a hit in the standings, seeing limited playing time due to an illness.
 
Despite that, Kulas is putting up 18.4 ppg and 8.4 rpg  and owns an RMAC best 65 percent field goal shooting mark. Senior Jamall Taylor provides an outside factor with a 51 percent (16-24) shooting mark from downtown. Taylor is second on the team in scoring at 10.8 ppg. Senior Marco Pascolo, freshman Jake Heath, and junior Brian Orr all average 9 ppg or better.
 
"At the beginning of the season if you would have told me we would be 5-5 now, knowing our schedule, I 100 percent would have taken that," Henry said. "That being said, I think we had the opportunity to have a couple more wins."