RAPID CITY, S.D. --- South Dakota School of Mines women's basketball head coach Ryan Larsen is happy to be in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Shootout Post-Season Tournament, but he knows what could have been had the Hardrockers gone 2-0 during the last weekend of the regular season.

Had SD Mines beaten Regis Friday and Chadron State Saturday, the Hardrockers were looking at the potential for as high as a six seed. Instead, they fell to the Rangers, 62-49, and to the Eagles, 70-67, in overtime which will set up a rematch of last season's postseason meeting in Pueblo, Colo.

In this year's version, the Lady Hardrockers are the No. 8 seed with a 16-12 overall record and an 11-11 record in the RMAC. The Hardrockers are now tasked with going on the road to face the No. 1 seed, CSU-Pueblo Thunderwolves, who are 22-6 overall and 20-2 in conference. And listed third in the most recent NCAA Div. II South Central Region rankings.

"It feels great to be still playing. Speaking for my team and myself, we're a little disappointed that we're not a higher seed, we had opportunities and we let it slip through our fingers," Larsen said. "You can point to any loss throughout the year, a couple of close calls here and there, you don't know where those could have put us. It's a lesson for our program for how important every game is."

Still, SD Mines will be playing in one of the most important games of season Tuesday. The trip to Pueblo, however, will not be easy.

"They're probably the biggest team in our league, they have length, height and physicality. Those aren't good matchups for us, and that's where they get you," he said. "First time we played them we didn't play well, took us off the arch and wouldn't let us shoot. We've improved there, after that game everyone started doing that to us. We've found other ways to score."

It's not all doom and gloom for the Lady 'Rockers, Larsen said he is keeping his team confident. 

For example, the Hardrockers aren't packing for just an overnight trip when they head to Pueblo.

"(I said) pack all three sets of uniforms, pack like we're going to be gone through Saturday. That's the goal," he said. "I still think we can shoot ourselves out of games, but we're also the team that can get really, really hot and beat anyone. I know we can win a game if we get hot from the arch.

"We'll have to play well defensively, but we're a dangerous team. If I'm the opposing team and I look at our stats and the way we can make 3's, I'd be alarmed and scared."

The Hardrockers close out the regular season with the third ranked offense in the RMAC. SD Mines averages 66.5 points per game and gives up 60.1 on defense. CSUP is right there as well keeping pace with 66.2 markers each time out. The ThunderWolves defense is solid though, allowing just 56.6 points per game.

This will be an interesting matchup related to perimeter shooting. The Hardrockers lead the conference, shooting 34 percent on the arc while CSU-Pueblo tops the rankings as the best conference team at defending the three-pointer allowing 26 percent shooting.

SD Mines have a number of offensive weapons. Sophomore Anna Haugen leads the team in scoring, averaging 10.4 per game while fellow sophomores Sami Steffeck cashes in for 10.0 ppg and Cooper Courtney dishes in for 9.8. Junior Taylor Molstad contributes with 9.1 ppg and freshman Ryan Weiss tacks on 9.0 ppg.

CSUP is paced by junior Molly Rohrer, (sister to former Lady Hardrocker standout Megan Rohrer) who dishes in for 14.4 ppg earning a majority of her points in the paint while senior Tuileisu Anderson is averaging 12.6 ppg coming on the perimeter. Senior Taylor Long (9.5 ppg) and junior Lauren Heyn (9.4 ppg) make the T-Wolves hard to game plan against.

In last year's post-season game, the Hardrockers put up a great fight and nearly pulled off an upset, but fell the CSUP, 69-65, as SD Mines, playing in the first ever RMAC Shootout, faded down the stretch.

With another year under their belts and with the Hardrockers getting valuable playoff experience, the 2018 RMAC Shootout is fixing to be just that. 

 SD Mines and Pueblo tip-off at 7 p.m. and the game will be steamed live at: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/sdsmt/ and livestats will also be provided at: http://www.gothunderwolves.com/sports/wbkb/2017-18/boxscores/20180227_zslx.xml .