The Chadron State College basketball teams will be fighting to improve their chances of reaching the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference playoffs when they visit Colorado State-Pueblo on Friday night and Colorado-Colorado Springs on Saturday night for double-headers.
 
The CSC women, led by senior forward Kattie Ranta's 59 points and 29 rebounds in two games, swept New Mexico Highlands and Western New Mexico at home last weekend. At 3-8 in conference play, the Eagles are still are the bottom of the season standings, but are hoping to build on their latest success.
 
Another CSC senior, Kayli Rageth, had 36 points and 18 rebounds in the two games. For the season, Ranta is fourth in the RMAC in scoring at 18.5 points a game and Rageth is sixth at 16.5. Ranta is also third in the RMAC in rebounding at 10.2 per game and Rageth is in the top 10 at 6.5 a game.
 
The CSC men split their games last weekend, falling 85-82 to Highlands, but topping Western New Mexico 88-82. They are 7-8 overall and 4-7 in conference play, just two games away from ranking among the top eight teams that will advance to the playoffs.
 
Senior Zac Bargen at 12.6 points a game is the only team member averaging in double figures, but five others are averaging at least 8.5.
 
The Pueblo women are 12-5 overall and 9-2 and tied for second place with Black Hills State in the RMAC standings. Colorado Mesa leads the league at 11-0.
 
Three seniors are among the ThunderWolves' pacesetters. Paige Ramm, who is 5-8, leads the team in scoring at 13.2 points a game. Next is 6-2 senior Taylor Fox at 12.9 points and 7.2 rebounds. Another senior, Alex Evans, along with Dee Arrieta, a 5-4 sophomore, are averaging 11 points.
 
The Pueblo men are 7-8 for the year and 6-5 in the RMAC. They are tied with three teams for fifth place in the conference. Their top scorer is 5-10 senior Nathan Tigner at 14.6 points a game. Julian Caldwell is chipping in 12 points a game, Wendall Lee 11.4 and Matt Rosenbaum 11.3
 
Rosenbaum is a 6-6 senior from Sidney. Caldwell and Lee are the team's top rebounders at about six a game.
 
The Colorado Springs women are 5-10 for the season and 4-7 in the conference. They feature one of the RMAC's top players, junior guard Abby Kirchoff, who is averaging 23.2 points and has been the team's top scorer in every game with a season-best of 35. 
 
Kirchoff is also averaging a team-best 6.4 rebounds, is shooting 46 percent from the field and has made 109 of 122 free throws for an 89.3 percentage.  
 
The Mountain Lion men are 9-6 overall and are deadlocked with Pueblo at 6-5 in the conference standings. Sophomore guard Derrick White paces the Lions with a 19.2-point scoring average. He's gone to the free throw line 113 times and has cashed in on 88 of his shots there.
 
Another sophomore, Alex Welsh is averaging 13 points to rank second on the team in scoring.