After opening their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference schedule on a high note at home last weekend, the Chadron State College basketball teams will make their first of two straight trips to the Denver area this weekend to play more RMAC foes.
 
The Eagles will visit Colorado Mines in Golden on Friday night and play at Colorado Christian in Lakewood on Saturday night.
 
Both CSC coaches said their teams can still do many things better, but they were happy with the improvement that was demonstrated last weekend. The CSC men defeated both Colorado Mesa and Western State. The CSC women lost to Mesa, but best Western.
 
Women's coach Tim Connealy said having all of his players available was a big plus. Men's coach Brent Bargen was elated that his team held both Mesa (58) and Western (57) to fewer than 60 points.
 
"You don't have to make as many shots if you can keep the other team from scoring 60 points," Bargen said.
 
However, the CSC men shot 57 percent from the field against Mesa and 47 percent against Western. In the second game, the Eagles made 7 of 15 3-pointers and 16 of 20 free throws.
 
The Colorado Mines women were 5-1 entering last weekend, but lost to both Western New Mexico (68-50) and New Mexico Highlands (75-68) on the road.  They are led by 5-foot-10 senior Taylor Helbig, who is averaging 16.6 points and 8.3 rebounds. Courtney Martin, a 6-2 junior, is averaging 12.9 points a game.
 
The Mines men are 6-0 and nationally ranked after beating Western New Mexico 69-59 and Highlands 78-66 last weekend. They have four players averaging in double digits. Caleb Waitsman, a 6-8 sophomore, is averaging 15.5 points, and senior Brian Miller, a 6-0, 145-pound guard, is averaging 15.2 to set the pace. Gokel Natesan, a 6-5 sophomore, is chipping in 14.5 a game and Trevor Ritchie, a 6-5 senior, is at 12.5 per game.
 
The Colorado Christian women are winless after eight games. Highlands beat the Lady Cougars 78-70 and Western trounced them 80-51 last weekend. Claire Paxton, a 6-2 sophomore; Taylor Torres, a 5-4 junior; and Kate Loughran, a 5-11 junior; are all averaging about 13 points a game.
 
The Cougars' men are off to a better start. They are 5-3. They downed Highlands 77-66 and beat Western 61-57 during their venture into New Mexico last weekend. Michael Brown, a 6-3 senior, leads the team in scoring at 18 points a game. He has made 26 of 53 shots from 3-point range. 
 
Tyler Shields, a 6-6 senior who began his career playing at Nebraska-Kearney in his hometown, is second on the team in scoring at 10 points a game. He's also averaging 6.5 rebounds.     
 
Emma Block leads the CSC women in scoring at 12.3 points per game but four others average at least six points. They are Maka Daysh (8.7), Kate Simonton (7.7), Maddie Metzger (6.8) and Ruby Luders (6.3).
 
Two players average double-digits for the CSC men. Kendrick Holliman leads the team in scoring (13.3) and rebounding (6.3) and Christopher Smith is at 12 points a game.