RAPID CITY, S.D. --- Fresh off of their first win of the season, the South Dakota Mines women's basketball team will hit the road in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play for a pair of games this weekend.
The Hardrockers are at CSU Pueblo Friday night at 5:30 p.m. in Pueblo, Colo., and at New Mexico Highlands Saturday at 4 p.m. in Las Vegas, N.M.
CSU Pueblo
Date/Time: Dec. 15 / 5:30 PM MT
Site: Pueblo, Colo.
Arena: Massari Arena
Series Overall: CSU Pueblo leads 9-4.
Streak: CSU Pueblo Won 2
Series at CSU Pueblo: CSU Pueblo leads 6-2.
Streak at CSU Pueblo: CSU Pueblo Won 2
Last Meeting: CSU Pueblo won in Pueblo, 92-73 (1/20/2023).
Watch Live: RMAC Network | www.rmacnetwork.com/sdmines
New Mexico Highlands
Date/Time: Dec. 16 / 4:00 PM MT
Site: Las Vegas, N.M.
Arena: John A. Wilson Complex
Series Overall: South Dakota Mines leads 11-1.
Streak: New Mexico Highlands Won 1
Series at New Mexico Highlands: South Dakota Mines leads 5-0.
Streak at New Mexico Highlands: South Dakota Mines Won 5
Last Meeting: New Mexico Highlands won in Rapid City, 82-67 (12/17/2022).
Watch Live: RMAC Network | www.rmacnetwork.com/sdmines
Piper From Behind The Arc
Junior Piper Bauer continues to have a hot hand from the outside for the Hardrockers. She leads the team in scoring at 14.9 points a game, 9th in the conference, shooting .364 (48-of-132). She is among the best in the conference from the land of 3, hitting 31-of-78 3-pointers for a .397 percentage, which is fifth in the RMAC. Her 31 3-pointers place her in fifth in the country and her 78 attempts are 12th in the nation, both at the NCAA Division II level. She is averaging 3.4 3-pointers per game, which ranks her second in the RMAC and fifth in the country.
Mansfield Makes Shots
Savea Mansfield, a 5-11 sophomore, leads the team in field-goal percentage at .485 (33-of-68). She is also in second place on the team in free-throw percentage at .737 and leads the team in free throws made (14-of-19). Although she has started just three games, she is also tied for first in steals with senior Madelyn Heiser with 10 each.
Dishing It Out
True freshman Emily Thomas continues to lead the team in assists with 24, averaging 2.6 per game which is 10th in the conference. She is second in minutes played at 26.9 per game. The 5-10 point guard also has 27 rebounds in nine games.
Grabbing the Offensive Boards
As a team, the Hardrockers are fifth in the conference in offensive rebounding with 103, an average of 11.4 per game. Sophomore Savea Mansfield and junior Madelyn Heiser lead the team with 13 offensive boards, while freshman Morning Grace Spotted Bear has 12 offensive boards, although she has started just two games this season.
Leading the Weekend
Senior Madelyn Heiser led the Hardrockers in scoring in both games last weekend against Colorado School of Mines and MSU Denver. Against Colorado Mines, Heiser scored 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and 1-of-2 from three. In the 63-62 win over MSU Denver, Heiser led the way with 19 points on 8-of-11 from the field. She averaged 17.0 points for the weekend, shooting .667 from the field and hitting 2-of-3 3-pointers. She moved her season scoring from 3.7 points a game to 6.7 per contest.
Scouting CSU Pueblo
CSU Pueblo is 1-3 in the RMAC and 5-6 on the season. It has been a bit of an up-and-down season for the ThunderWolves, as they had won four straight games before dropping two games last weekend, 69-62 to Adams State and 65-59 to Fort Lewis, both on the road. Their lone RMAC victory was against Chadron State, 62-52. The ThunderWolves also lost to Colorado Christian 78-67.
The ThunderWolves are led by 6-1 redshirt junior Alisha Little, who is averaging a double-double, scoring 17.0 points and 10.6 rebounds a game. Little is fourth in the conference in scoring and second in rebounding. Junior Landri Hudson is also scoring in double figures at 11.4 points a game, shooting .433 from 3-point land (26-of-60), fourth in the conference. Freshman Leilani Love is right there at 9.9 points a game and junior Tomia Johnson is among the RMAC leads in assists at 4.1 per game (sixth).
Scouting New Mexico Highlands
New Mexico Highlands is 2-2 in conference play and 3-6 on the season. The Cowgirls dropped a pair of road RMAC games last weekend, 64-57 to Fort Lewis and 91-60 to Adams State. New Mexico Highlands had opened league play with a pair of wins over Colorado Christian, 74-73 and 60-47 over Chadron State.
The Cowgirls are led by sophomore guard Juliana Aragon, who is scoring 13.9 points a game, shooting .451 from the field (37-of-82). She leads the team in assists at 4.1 per game, good for fifth in the conference. Delani Harris, a 5-8 senior guard, is averaging 9.6 points a game and leads the team in rebounding at 7.4 boards per game. Three players – junior Vanessa Herrera, junior Eva Ongoongotau and junior Maiah Rivas, are all averaging at leads 6.0 points a game.
Looking Ahead
After this weekend, the Hardrockers have just one game remaining this month, at Minot State on Dec. 30 in a non-conference contest. South Dakota Mines opens the New Year at home in RMAC play against Fort Lewis on Friday, Jan. 5 and Adams State on Saturday, Jan. 6.
About South Dakota Mines
The South Dakota School of Mines & Technology is a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) and NCAA Division II offering 13 men's and women's varsity intercollegiate athletic programs. The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference is a premier NCAA Division II conference with 15 members, as well as four associate members, located in the states of California, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Utah.
