The highest scoring men’s basketball team in the RMAC will be among Chadron State’s guests this weekend.
New Mexico Highlands visits Friday night. Led by 6-3 Raquan Mitchell and 6-4 Gerad Davis, both of whom are averaging 20.7 points, the Cowboys as a team are ringing up 89.7 points a game. They have tallied at least 100 points four times.
The Eagles, who pride themselves in playing stellar defense, figure to be challenged, but they are third among the 16 conference teams in field goal defense at 43.7 percent and first in three-point defense at 32.1 percent.
Mitchell leads the conference in three-pointers made with 58 and is shooting 42.3 percent from behind the arc. Davis has made half his three-point attempts, but he’s taken only 28.
Highlands also has an enforcer around the basket. Nnamdi Okoro, a 6-7 native of Nigeria, is the conference’s leading rebounder at 8.5 per game and has blocked 23 shots to share the RMAC lead.
He’s averaging 10.2 points and has the RMAC’s second best field goal percentage, 62.9 percent.
The Cowboys will come to town with a 12-3 record, including a 7-2 mark in the conference. Their losses have been to Western New Mexico 81-75 in the season opener and Dixie State 83-65 and Regis 93-90 in conference action.
The Eagles led all the way while nipping Dixie 64-61 last Saturday night. The CSC men are 7-8 overall and 5-4 in the conference.
CSC’s 5-4 conference mark is the best in over a decade at the point of mid-January.
Last weekend, Highlands knocked off Colorado Mesa 94-82 and Western State 94-84. Mitchell scored 70 points in the two games. He has a career-high of 40 and Davis has tallied 41.
The Highlands women’s team isn’t as potent as the men. The Cowgirls are 3-13 for the season and 1-8 in the RMAC. Their conference victory was over Adams State 66-62 on Dec. 8.
The Cowgirls’ top gun is 5-8 sophomore Jordyn Lewis at 14.2 points a game. She’s made 48 of 54 shots from the line this season. Allyah George, a 5-11 senior, is averaging 10.6 points and 6.0 rebounds.
On Saturday night, the Eagles’ second set of opponents will be from Colorado State-Pueblo.
The Lady ThunderWolves are 8-7 for the season and 6-3 in the RMAC. The men are 5-10 and 3-6.
Jenna Knafelc, a 5-9 senior, is the top threat for the women. She’s averaging 14.3 points and has made 40 of the team’s 62 triples. Khiya Adams, a 6-0 junior is averaging 13.2 points and 7.4 rebounds.
The Pueblo women were 6-1, losing to only Westminster, prior to last weekend when both Western Colorado and Colorado Mesa beat them by nine points in Pueblo.
The Pueblo men have defeated Dixie State, Colorado Christian and Western in league play.
Donovan Oldham, a 6-4 junior, is the scoring leader at 15.4 points a game. Jason Anderson, a 6-8 post, is next at 11.4 points. Three more ThunderWolves are averaging at least 8.7
The Eagles will return the visits to Pueblo and Highlands, in that order, Feb. 22 and 23 when the season is about to end.