CHADRON – Both Chadron State College basketball teams will wrap up their season schedule by playing at home three times.
This weekend, the Eagles will host Colorado-Colorado Springs on Friday night and Colorado State-Pueblo on Saturday night. Both double-headers start at 5:30.
The final game will be on Saturday, March 1 against Black Hills State.
Fans are encouraged to wear pink to Friday's game to support breast cancer awareness.
The Chadron State men are 10-13 overall and 7-12 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, which is 10th place in the league standings. The top eight teams will qualify for the RMAC Shootout in March. Colorado Mesa at 10-9 in the RMAC is currently eighth place and New Mexico Highlands at 8-11 also leads the Eagles.
Chadron State defeated both teams earlier this season.
Zac Bargen leads the CSC men in scoring at 11.7 points per game.
David Downey isn't far behind at 10.2.
The Chadron State women have been eliminated from the conference tournament but the Eagles (4-19, 4-15 RMAC) still have plenty to play for.
Kattie Ranta leads the CSC women in scoring with 17.5 points and 9.6 rebounds per game. She is also the fourth-leading scorer and rebounder in the conference.
Ranta, a senior from Rapid City, S.D., is also nearing a career milestone. The 6-foot guard has scored 966 points, which ranks her 10th all-time. She also has the eighth-most rebounds in a career with 545.
Presently, all four of the visiting teams this weekend are in the RMAC playoff picture. However, at 8-10 in league play the Colorado Springs women are eighth in the standings and still on the bubble.
The Mountain Lions are paced by senior guard Abby Kirchoff, who is among the league leaders with a 21.6-point scoring average. She's the team's leading 3-point shooter at nearly 46 percent (43-94) and has made 88 percent (133-151) of her free throws.
Kirchoff scored 18 points, nearly all of them late in the game, when Colorado Springs edged the Eagles 65-60 at home on Jan. 25.
The Colorado Springs men are 13-5 in the RMAC and in third place in the RMAC standings. Led mostly by sophomores, the Lions beat the Eagles 92-82 a month ago when guards Alex Welsh and Derrick White combined for 39 points.
White is averaging 21 points and Welsh nearly 13 for the season.
The CSU-Pueblo women are 15-3 in the RMAC and have second place in the final standings wrapped up, behind only 19-0 Colorado Mesa. The ThunderWolves have four players averaging in double digits, led by Taylor Fox at 14 points. She also leads the rebounders at 7.5 a game.
The Pueblo men are 11-7 and tied for fourth in the conference standings. They are senior-laden. One of their leaders, guard Nate Tigner, is this week's RMAC Offensive Player of the Week after averaging 21 points and 8.5 assists during wins over Adams State and Fort Lewis. He's the conference leader in assists for the season with a 6.8 average. He had just two turnovers last weekend.
When the Eagles and ThunderWolves met in Pueblo on Jan. 24, Pueblo won the women's game 73-60 and the men's game 94-88.
Â