By: Con Marshall
With its backs to the wall, the Chadron State College men’s basketball team will be hoping to duplicate what it did a month ago–sweep Colorado State University-Pueblo and New Mexico Highlands University.
On Jan. 18, the Eagles outscored the high-scoring Highlands Cowboys 80-69 and downed Pueblo 71-62 the next night. Those have been Chadron State’s only back-to-back, “same weekend” wins against Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rivals this season. This time, the games will be on the road.
Both Eagles teams, women and men, will visit Pueblo on Friday night and Highlands on Saturday night.
The CSC men are only 2-6 in the conference while playing away from home this winter. In order to stay in contention for a spot in the RMAC Shootout, an Eagles’ goal all season, they’ll need to find a way to get a W or two this weekend. They’re 9-10 and ninth in the league standings with just three games remaining. The top eight teams advance to the playoffs.
The Chadron State women will have revenge on their minds during the trip. They lost a pair of heartbreakers at home in the first meetings with this weekend’s opponents. Highlands won 58-56 and Pueblo’s Jennah Knafelc swished a long three-pointer with 11 seconds left to take a 68-67 verdict the next night.
The young Pueblo men’s team has struggled recently, winning just one of the last 11 games. The ThunderWolves are 6-19 overall and 4-15 in the conference. Their leading scorer is Donovan Oldham with a 12.8-point average. He scored just four against the Eagles in their first meeting.
CSC’s 20-7 bulge at the free throw line was a major factor in the Jan. 19 outcome in the Chicoine Center.
Highlands had a miserable time shooting when it visited the Eagles. The Cowboys fired half of their 66 shots from behind the three-point line and made only five. That’s far from normal. They are shooting 36.7 percent from long range for the year.
The Eagles also out-rebounded the New Mexico team 46-30 in the first meeting.
Now 16-9 overall and 11-8 in the RMAC, good for seventh place, Highlands features Division I transfers Gerad Davis and Raquan Mitchell. They are averaging 20.3 and 19.7 points, respectively, second and fourth on the conference’s scoring chart. Both have tallied at least 40 points once in RMAC contests this season.
Davis scored 21 and Mitchell 15 during their visit to Chadron.
Although the Eagles’ 157 three-pointers are 14th among the 16 conference teams, their 39.1 percentage from behind the arc is second. And, Chadron State is the leader in three-point defense at 32.6 percent. The foes have hit 155 treys.
The Pueblo women are 14-11 for the season and 12-7 in the RMAC, undoubtedly good enough to make the Shootout, but they’d like to rank among the top four in the final standings and get a home court berth for the first round. They are beatable at home. Colorado Mines, one of the teams the Eagles have defeated, won 66-47 in Pueblo on Feb. 1.
Knafelc leads the Lady Wolves in scoring at 14.2 points a game. She’s nailed 63 of her team’s 102 treys. Six foot forward Khiya Adams is averaging 12.4 points and 7.1 rebounds.
The Highlands Cowgirls are 4-22 for the season and 2-17 in the league. Their closest game since edging the Eagles was played last Saturday night when they lost to Colorado Springs 71-62. Jordyn Lewis, a 5-8 sophomore who tallied 19 points against the Eagles, leads her team in scoring a 13.8 a game. She has made 62 of the Cowgirls’ 156 treys.
After this weekend’s trip, the Eagles will wrap up the regular season by playing at Metropolitan State University of Denver on March 1.