Rapid City, S.D. --- The South Dakota School of Mines men's basketball team returns home for another Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference double-header weekend at the King Center in Rapid City this weekend.
 
The first game will take place Friday at 7:30pm against a CSU-Pueblo team that is desperately trying to break a three-game skid. The Thunderwolves are currently 5-12 overall and 3-8 in the conference. They are sitting in 14^th place in the RMAC standings.
 
CSU-Pueblo has lost four of their last five games, all of which were in RMAC play. The losses they suffered have come against Regis (84-53a), Colorado Mesa (98-91), MSU Denver (71-64), and most recently Chadron State (71-62). Their lone win in the last five came on January 11^th against Western State (86-61).
 
The Pack are 2-6 on the road this season. They leads the RMAC in total rebounds with 628, while its 36.9 rebounds per game is good for third. CSU-Pueblo owns 3.6 blocks per game to rank fourth in the league, while its 62 total blocks is also fourth. The ThunderWolves have knocked down 9.0 3-pointers per game (153 total is fourth) this season to sit fifth in the conference. CSUP are scoring 76.3 points per game, but allowing 80.8 points per contest this season. 
                                                                                                 
Redshirt-junior Donovan Oldham leads the team and ranks 14th in the RMAC with 14.6 points per game. His 86.8 percent shooting from the charity stripe is good for second in the conference. He is shooting at a 46.5 percent clip from the field to sit 13th in the league.

Redshirt-junior Jason Anderson is second on the team with 11.7 points per game. He leads the RMAC and ranks 20th nationally with a 60.8 percent effort from the field. His 5.7 rebounds per game is a team best. Redshirt-senior Gavin Liggett has dropped a team-best 36 3-pointers to rank tied for eighth in the RMAC. He's 11th in 3-point field goals per game with 2.1. He attempted 17 3-pointers at Westminster to have the second most attempts in a game by a member of the RMAC this season. He hit eight of those 17 attempts. 

Junior Harvey Barr has 16 blocks this season to rank tied for 10th in the conference (0.9 rpg). His five blocks against Dixie State ranks tied for the most by an RMAC player this season. Sophomore Corey Seng recorded three straight double-doubles from Dec. 14-Jan. 4. In those three games he averaged 13 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game, while shooting 48.3 percent from the field. He pulled down a career-high 11 rebounds against Colorado Christian, while his 17 points against Westminster was just shy of a career-high (18 points last season). 


On Saturday will play host to New Mexico Highlands in a 5:30 p.m. showdown. New Mexico Highlands has an overall record of 13-4 and a conference record of 8-3. This record puts them in third of  the RMAC standings.
 
The Cowboys come off of splitting a pair of games on the road last week, falling to Chadron State 80-69 on Friday before bouncing back and coming away with a double overtime win at MSU Denver 83-81 on Saturday. In Saturday's win, the Cowboys overcame shooting struggles to battle back from a 12-point, second-half deficit and a six-point, double-overtime deficit to rally and beat the Roadrunners.
 
NMHU has two of the top three scorers in the league in Raquan Mitchell (20.5) and Gerad Davis (20.4) with Mitchell leading the conference in 3-pointers per game (3.4). Mitchell is shooting 39.4 percent from 3-point range (second in the RMAC) while also averaging 4.4 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.7 steals (fifth in RMAC). Davis is averaging 4.9 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 2.1 steals (second in RMAC). Jordan Jones is averaging 13.4 points while Nnamdi Okoro is at 11.1 points per game while leading the RMAC in rebounding at 8.2 per game and second in blocked shots at 1.5 per contest.

The Cowboys continue to be one of the best teams in the nation in turnover margin with NMHU committing 11.8 per game (second in the RMAC, 53rd in the nation) while forcing 18.5 per game (first in the RMAC, 14th in the nation) for a turnover margin of 6.7 - third in the country. NMHU is first in the RMAC and 15th in the NCAA in scoring (88.1) while the Cowboys are also first in the conference and 18th in the nation in steals per game (9.6).
 
The Hardrockers are 7-12 overall with a 4-7 RMAC record to sit in a three-way tie for 11th. South Dakota Mines is 5-3 at home this season. Last weekend, the team went on the road and fell to Colorado School of Mines (93-71) and University of Colorado Colorado Springs (79-78).

SDM&T is tied for first in the league in the fewest fouls per game category with 16.7 per contest. The team ranks fourth in assist per game  The Hardrockers have excelled on the defensive end this season and are third in the RMAC in scoring defense, as they allow 70.7 points per game. The team sits fifth in the league in field goal percentage defense (44.7 percent). 

Alec Williams leads the team with 12.6 points per game and also has a team-best 3.9 assists per contest (T-5th in the league). His 1.35 assist/turnover ratio is seventh in the RMAC. Mitchell Sueker adds 12.4 points per contest, while Logan Elers owns 11.8 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. Troy Brady's 36 three-pointers is tied for eighth in the conference, while his 1.42 steals per game is a team high and ranks 11th in the league. Damani Hayes leads the team in rebounding (5.8) while averaging 9.1 points per game.