RAPID CITY, S.D. --- After splitting this weekend on the road, the South Dakota School of Mines men's basketball team will return home for a pair of competitive games that will play an important role in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Standings.

The Hardrockers will welcome Colorado School of Mines and the University of Colorado Colorado Springs to the King Center this weekend.

The Hardrockers fell to Regis University, 75-62, last Friday, but bounced back against Colorado Christian on Saturday for an 85-73 victory.

SD Mines heads into this weekend in a five-way tie for eighth place. Fort Lewis College, Regis, Westminster College, MSU Denver and the Hardrockers are all 4-5 in the RMAC while Western State and Adams States are both waiting in the wings with 3-6 records. New Mexico Highlands and CSU-Pueblo are tied for sixth in the league standings both with 5-4 RMAC marks.

The conference could see some drastic rearranging after this weekend.

The 'Rockers are averaging 74.5 points per game and allowing 69.1 points per game this season. They are shooting 46.9 percent from the field, 38.2 percent from beyond the arc and 71.3 percent from the line. SD Mines is also averaging 35.1 rebounds, 14 assists and 5.1 steals per game this season.

Mitchell Sueker is the Hardrockers' leading scorer at 13.5 points per game, followed by Allec Williams and Logan Elers at 13.1 and 10.9 points per game, respectively. Elers leads the team in rebounds with 85 (5.7 per game), while Williams leads the team in assists (54, 3.6 per game) and steals (23). Jack Fiddler is the top three-point shooter for the SD Mines with 30 made this season.
 
First up on the schedule is Colorado School of Mines on Friday night. The Orediggers also find themselves in a three-way tie for first place in the league with a 7-2 mark and are 11-5 overall on the season. Colorado School of Mines is riding a three-game win streak.
 
CSM is averaging 77.4 ppg and allows just 69.3 ppg. They are currently shooting 46 percent from the field and have made good on 133 three-pointers this year.
 
Individually, Mason Baker leads the offense averaging 17 ppg and is a 42 percent shooter. Brendan Sullivan contributes with 15.1 ppg and Michael Glen tacks on 11.5 ppg and leads the team in rebounding averaging 6.8 rpg.
 
Friday's game is slated to start at 7:30 p.m. The game is available to stream free on the RMAC Network at: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/sdsmt/ and livestats are available at: https://gorockers.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary .
 
On Saturday, UCCS comes to campus to challenge the 'Rockers. The Mountain Lions also have a lot riding on this weekend as they have moved up the RMAC rankings after two wins this past weekend. The Mountain Lions are in a tie with Colorado Mesa University for the fourth spot in the RMAC with their 6-3 conference record.

With their win on Saturday, UCCS has now won three straight games which matches their longest winning streak of the season so far. The 92 points scored against Adams State was also a season high for the team.

The Mountain Lions are averaging 74.2 points per game and allowing only 67.4 points per game this season. As a team, they are shooting 46.2 percent from the field and 36.7 percent from three. UCCS is also averaging 38.6 rebounds per game, 14.7 assists per game, 6.2 steals per game and 5.1 blocks per game.

Senior Padiet Wang remains the team's leading scorer at 15.8 points per game and is rapidly approaching 1,000 career points. Wang currently sits at 987 points for his career, meaning if he was to score his average points per game in either of the two games this weekend, he would eclipse the century mark for the Mountain Lions.

Redshirt senior Blend Avdili increased his average points per game to 13.2 after two great offensive performances last weekend. Freshman Alijah Comithier was the best offensive player for UCCS last weekend as he recorded two 20-point performances, including a career high 28 points against ASU on Saturday. Comithier is averaging just under 10 points per game this season (9.4).

Redshirt freshman William Becker also put up a career high against ASU with 16 points off the bench. He also remains the team's leader in rebounds (89, 6.8 per game) and blocks (17, 1.3 per game).Junior Parker Gaddis now sits at a team high 58 assists this season, 4.14 per game.

Saturday's game tips off at 6p.m. The game is available to stream free on the RMAC Network at: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/sdsmt/ and livestats are available at: https://gorockers.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary .