RAPID CITY, S.D. --- The South Dakota School of Mines  men's basketball team will officially kick off the season this weekend playing host to a pair of Texas school out of the Lonestar and Heartland Conferences at the King Center in Rapid City, South Dakota.
 
Friday night's season and home openers will see the Hardrockers take on Texas A&M - Kingsville in a 6 p.m. bout. The Javalinas finished the 2017-18 campaign with a 12-16 record and a 5-13 record in the Lone Star Conference. The Hardrocker have travel to Texas for the past two season for this series and this will be the first time they two programs have played outside of Texas. TAMK lead the series, 0-2.
 
The "Hogs" as the team is also known by, brought in 14 new players to mix with a handful of returners led by 2017 All-LSC Defensive team selection and senior Robert Stevenson (Houston, Texas). The Javelinas graduated their entire starting five after 2017-18, with the only returners who started even a game for the Javelinas being senior Elton Dyer (Houston, Texas) and Stevenson, who made three combined starts a year ago.
 
The Hardrockers will play host to Texas A&M International Saturday evening at Goodell Gymnasium at 6 p.m.  The Dustdevils will take on Chadron State Friday night before the matchup in Rapid City on Saturday.
 
Last year, the Dustdevils finished their season with an 11-18 record and a 4-12 record in the Heartland Conference. The previous meeting between the 'Rockers and Devils occurred last season in Laredo, Texas where a dominate performance by the Hardrockers saw them win, 93-66, and hand TAMI their worse defeat on their home floor in over 15 years.
 
Texas A&M International was selected to finish ninth in the Heartland Conference this season.
 
The Hardrockers were able to get some competitive playing time under their belts this past week traveling East River for an exhibition game against South Dakota State followed by a scrimmage against the University of Sioux Falls.
 
Against the Jackrabbits, the Hardrockers found themselves trailing by just five points at the half, but the second half SDSU was able to get some separation and in the end took the game 82-63.
 
SD Mines junior guard Jake Heath finished the game with 16 points and seven assists, junior forward Logan Elers lead the team in scoring with 17 points, seven rebounds and two steals. Freshman guard Damani Hayes recorded nine rebounds in 22 minutes and notched five markers.
Tune into stretch internet to watch the live stream at: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/sdsmt/ ; and follow along with the live stats at: https://gorockers.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary