By CON MARSHALL
Both Chadron State College basketball teams will be striving to bounce back this weekend from the subpar performances they had last weekend in South Dakota when they hit the road again.
This time the Eagles will visit Colorado School of Mines and Colorado-Colorado Springs for double-headers. The action in Golden will start at 6 p.m. Friday and the Saturday twin-bill will tip off at 5:30.
The Orediggers and Mountain Lions were in Chadron just two weekends ago.
With two freshmen leading the way, the CSC women surprised Colorado Mines 76-73. Point guard Jori Peters poured in 21 points and center Angelique Gall made all 10 of her shots while scoring 14 points.
The previous night, Colorado Springs edged the Lady Eagles 66-64 when Chelsea Pearson hit a 3-pointer with six seconds left, just 10 seconds after CSC’s Jessica Harvey had nailed a trey, giving her a career-high 27 points.
The men’s games at CSC on Jan. 25 and 26 also were exciting. The Eagles tallied 51 points in the second half while toppling Colorado Springs 90-75 in the first game. Chadron State led 43-32 at halftime over Colorado Mines, but the Orediggers pounded the ball inside during the second half, got the Eagles’ big men in fouled trouble and won 82-75.
Mines shot 61.2 percent from the field in the second half and all five starters are averaging in double figures for the season.
After winning 10 games in a row, the Colorado Springs Mountain Lions have lost their last four and are now 12-9 overall and 9-6 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. But the Orediggers have continued to strike it rich. Mines hasn’t lost since Nov. 18, has won 17 in a row and is now 18-3 for the season and 15-0 in the conference.
New Mexico Highlands led Mines by 17 points midway in the first half last Saturday night in Las Vegas, but the Orediggers closed the gap to 50-46 by halftime and won 81-78 on senior guard Ben Sonnefeld’s 3-pointer with 21 seconds remaining. The Cowboys didn’t get a shot before time expired.
Colorado Springs’ leader against the Eagles two weeks ago was senior guard Elijah Ross with 23 points. Five CSC players reached double digits, two more added nine and another had eight.
Both of the Chadron State women’s opponents this weekend are 9-6 and tied for fifth through seventh in the conference standings. Both swept their two games last weekend.
Mines topped CSU-Pueblo 66-47 as freshman Denali Pinto scored exactly half the Orediggers’ points and the Lady Diggers corraled the Highlands Cowgirls 69-38 with Pinto tallying a game-high 23 points. She’s the team leader at 15 points a games.
Colorado Springs outscored the Cowgirls 80-47 and defeated Pueblo 67-59 last weekend. The Lady Lions get the gold star for balanced scoring. Nine of them are averaging between 5 and 7.5 points. Pearson, who hit the winning shot versus the Eagles, was the only UCCS player to reach double digits in that nail-biter. All of her points came on five treys.
The Chadron State men were 5-3 in January, but couldn’t find the range in the first two games of February. Black Hills State won 82-62 in the opener last weekend and South Dakota Mines prevailed 80-59 in the second contest. The Eagles are now 10-11 overall and 8-7 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
The story was about the same for the CSC women. After playing four straight games that were decided by no more than three points, Black Hills State won 72-56 on Friday night and South Dakota Mines won 60-45 on Saturday. The Lady Eagles are 4-17 and 3-12.
The Eagles’ men have seven players averaging at least 6.6 points, led by forward Diontae Champion and guard Michael Sparks at 11.7 apiece. Another guard, Colby Jackson is averaging 10.4 while Jeremy Ruffin is averaging nine points and team-high 7.1 rebounds. The Eagles hope they are fouled often. Sparks, Jackson and Ruffin are all shooting at least 84.8 percent from the free throw line.
Harvey and fellow sophomore Taryn Foxen are each averaging 11 points for the CSC women. Gall is next at 8.3 points while shooting a team-best 53.8 percent from the field.