Both Chadron State College basketball teams will open their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference seasons this weekend with a trip to Colorado's Western Slope.
 
The Eagles will play at Colorado Mesa in Grand Junction on Friday night and visit Western State in Gunnison on Saturday night. Both double-headers will tip-off at 5:30.
 
The Chadron State women are still seeking their first win after playing four non-conference opponents. Coach Tim Connealy said his players have given great effort and primarily just need to become more efficient on offense.
 
The Eagles have shot 35.2 percent from the field, but only 27 percent from 3-point range and 65 percent from the free throw line. They've also had 19 more turnovers than the opponents.
 
The team's leading scorer is transfer Kayli Rageth, who tallied 16 points in each of the first three games and 17 in the fourth. Another senior, Kattie Ranta, is averaging 12.5 points and a team-best 10.3 rebounds. Also scoring in double figures is junior guard Dallas Shaw at 10.3 points a game.
 
The CSC men are 3-1 with wins over Dickinson State, Grace University in Omaha and South Dakota Mines and a loss to Nebraska-Kearney. Coach Brent Bargen's team is also trying to get the offense untracked.
 
The Eagles have shot 42 percent overall from the field and 29 percent on 3-pointers. They've taken up some slack at the free throw line, where they have outscored the opponents 95 to 67 while shooting 68 percent.
 
Senior Zac Bargen leads the Eagles in scoring at 14.3 points a game. Another senior, Grant Stone, has shot 56.7 percent from the field while averaging 12.3 points.
 
Junior forward Kendrick Holliman, is averaging 9.5 points and both of the team's new point guards, Chris Smith and Josiah Lee, are averaging 8.8. The coach says depth is one of the team's strengths.
 
The Mesa women's team is coming off a fantastic season. They were 31-2 overall and 21-1 against conference opponents last year, when they won both the RMAC regular-season championship and the post-season tournament.
 
Several of the big guns from that team graduated, but the fifth-ranked Mavericks are off to a 4-0 start while defeating Northwestern Oklahoma, Southwestern Oklahoma, Montana Western and Dixie State, all by wide margins. They outscored the four foes by 78 to 52.2 points a game and are fifth in the NCAA Division II poll this week.
 
Mesa's leading scorer is 5-foot-9 senior guard Sharaya Selsor, who is averaging 23 points a game. Her output has included 12 of 28 from 3-point range. Last weekend, Selsor scored 40 points and handed out 14 assists in two games in the Mavericks' classic, earning her the RMAC's Offensive Player of the Week award.
 
Another weapon for Mesa has been Aubry Boehme, a 6-foot transfer from the University of Wyoming. She has made 27 of 35 field goal attempts while averaging 14.3 points and 6.5 rebounds. Taylor Rock, a 5-10 senior, is averaging 8.8 points and 7.5 rebounds.
 
The Mesa men have a new head coach this winter with long-time assistant Andy Shantz taking over for Jim Heaps. The Mavericks were 18-10 overall and 14-10 in the RMAC a year ago.
 
So far this year the Mavs are 2-2. They lost to Dixie State 85-81 and Cal Baptist 89-79 to open the season and then edged Montana Western 69-64 and CSU-Pueblo 79-77 during the tournament in Grand Junction last weekend.
 
Three Mavericks are averaging in double figures. Ryan Stephan, a 6-10 sophomore, is averaging 13.5 points; 6-2 junior Landon Vermeer is chipping in 12.5 points a game after sinking 11 of 13 3-point shots; and 6-5 junior Mike Melillo is averaging 11.5 points and a team-best 8.5 rebounds.
 
Neither of the Western State teams appears to be as potent as Mesa.
 
The Western women are 0-5 and also lost two exhibition games. In the regular-season contests, they have been outscored by 76.8 to 53.2 margin. The top two scorers are returning starters Jade McIntosh, a 5-11 junior, and Desiree Smith, a 5-8 sophomore. McIntosh is averaging 12.3 points and Smith 9.4.
 
Smith scored 44 points and McIntosh 30 against the Eagles last season, when the teams split a pair of games. The Eagles won 78-70 in Chadron and Western won 74-64 in Gunnison.
 
The Mountaineers' men played a pair of games in Hawaii last weekend, losing to Hawaii-Pacific 75-65 and Hawaii-Hilo 88-62. Prior to that, they had lost four exhibition games.
 
The Western men beat the Eagles in both games last year by scores of 69-66 in Chadron and 81-66 in Gunnison. Just five of the players who were on last year's roster are back and none of them scored more than six points in either of the games against CSC.
 
Mason Biddle, a 6-1 junior, led the Mountaineers with 28 points against Hawaii-Pacific and shared the scoring lead against Hilo with Jordan Adams, a 6-3 senior, with 13. Adams tallied 24 and 20 points in the first two exhibition games.