The Chadron State College basketball teams will open their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference schedules by playing at home this weekend in the new Chicoine Center.
 
The Colorado Mesa Mavericks will visit on Friday night and the Western State Mountaineers on Saturday night. The women's games will tip off the action at 5:30 both evenings.
 
Both CSC teams are still working out some kinks, but the coaches remain optimistic that their teams can be competitive. The men are 1-2 and the women are 0-4.
 
Both Mesa teams are off to strong starts. The women, who are ranked 14th in the most recent poll, are 3-1 with their only loss an 81-58 decision to No. 3 ranked Drury University of Missouri. The Mavericks have defeated Palm Beach Atlantic 70-59, Simon Fraser of Canada 84-76 and McMurry College of Texas 64-41.
 
The Mesa women had a terrific season in 2013-14. They went 28-1 during the regular season, including three wins in the RMAC Shootout at the end of the season by an average of more than 20 points, overwhelmed two Texas opponents in the regional tournament and advanced to the Elite 8 before its season ended with a 30-2 record.
 
All five starters from that team are gone, including Sharaya Selsor, who averaged 23.7 points to rank among the nation's leaders. Coach Taylor Wagner has brought in a number of new players, but so far the starters have been last year's alternates. None of them averaged more than 3.5 points a year ago, but Erin Reichle, a 5-foot-6 sophomore, is leading the team at 16.8 points a game and sisters Siu and Saane Lo'amanu are averaging 10.3 and 8.5, respectively, after four games.
 
The Mesa men finished at 13-14 last year.  All five starters from that team have returned. The Mavericks were 5-1 this November with wins over Dallas Baptist, Colorado College, Northern New Mexico and Angelo State of Texas by margins of 3, 1, 2 and 3 points, respectively. Their loss was to St. Edward's of Texas 74-61.
 
The Mavs' big gun in more ways than one is 6-10 Ryan Stephan, who is averaging 27 points and 7.4 rebounds this season. He has been the scoring leader in every game.
 
Julian Vasquez, a 6-3 guard, is next on the Mesa scoring list at 10.4 a game while Jerry Duckworth has come off the bench to average 10.2 points and has made 13 of 29 treys.
 
Both Western State teams, who will play at Black Hills State on Friday night before coming to Chadron, are 1-3 this season.
 
All the men's games have been against Texas teams. The Mountaineers edged West Texas A&M 97-88 in double overtime, but have lost rather narrow decisions in the other games, including a 70-68 contest to Texas A&M International. Mason Biddle, a 6-1 senior, leads the scoring list at 17 points a game. Danny Hopkins, a 6-4 senior, is close behind at 16 a game.
 
The Western men were just 3-19 last season and hired Bradd Schafer, a former Mountaineer who was the head coach at Black Hills State, to rebuild the program. CSC won both games with Western last season.
 
The Western women own a 70-67 win over McMurry, but have lost to Upper Iowa 77-68, Montana State-Billings 95-57 and Simon Fraser 86-42. They leading scorer is 5-10 senior Jade McIntosh, who scored 22 points in the win over McMurry. 
 
The CSC and Western women split their games a year ago with Western winning 79-77 in Gunnison and CSC romping 70-48 at home.