Both Chadron State College basketball teams will be playing excellent teams on opponents' home courts at 2 p.m. Mountain time Saturday (Nov. 25).
 

              The Eagles' men will be playing the Sioux Falls Cougars and the CSC women will be taking on the Nebraska-Kearney Lady Lopers.
 

              The Chadron State men are 2-2 for the young season.  They got off to a slow start in their season-opener and lost at home to Texas A&M International 80-78.  The next night, they breezed past Texas A&M-Kingsville, also in Chadron, 109-70.  
 

              The Eagles led by relatively small margins during the first three-fourth of their game at Nebraska-Kearney on Saturday, Nov. 18, but were outscored down the stretch and fell to the Lopers 113-101.  They rebounded this past Tuesday afternoon at home and defeated the Bethany Swedes from Kansas 89-72. Coach Shane Paben gave all 13 players on his roster considerable playing time in that contest. 
 

              Three veterans—Porter Anderson, Bryce Latimer and Josh Robinson—who were among CSC's pacesetters a year ago when they finished 19-10 for the Eales' best season in more than 20 years, have again been among the mainstays so far in 2023-24. 
 

              Sioux Falls will enter Saturday's game with a 2-3 record. The Cougars opened the season with three losses by a total of four points, but since then have won 68-57 over Stanislaus State of California and 83-64 over the neighboring Augustana Vikings on Tuesday.
 

              The narrow setbacks were to two Kansas teams, Washburn (82-80) and Pittsburg State (67-66), in a classic at Pittsburg, and to Sonoma State (65-64) in California, before toppling classic host Stanislaus by 11 in the second game and then romping past another Sioux Falls team, Augustana. 
 

              Three Cougars—Kenji Scale, Jack Thompson and Creighton Morisch—are averaging between 11 and 12 points through the first five games. While playing in Chadron last Nov. 19, Sioux Falls edged the Eagles 69-68 by scoring on an out-of-bound, alley-oop at the buzzer. 
 

              The CSC women are 2-1 so far, defeating two Nebraska teams, College of St. Mary 88-64 and York 71-59, and losing to Texas A&M International in Laredo 91-64.  
 

            The Eagles' new coach, Travis Brewster, also has substituted freely so far while urging his team to play at a brisk pace.  Juniors Shae Powers and Olivia Waufle have provided strong leadership. The play by several of their younger teammates has been encouraging.  
 

            The Kearney women are 5-0.  They opened the season by winning over Minnesota-Crookston 79-70 and Southwest Minnesota 76-68 in a classic at Marshall. Since then while playing at home, the Lopers have overwhelmed Central Christian of Kansas (105-35), Nebraska Wesleyan (81-34) and St Mary (99-28).
   

            Like Chadron State, Kearney has a new coach. Drew Johnson, who had excellent success while leading two Kansas teams—Bethel and Newman—to new heights. At UNK, he replaced Carrie Eighmey, who moved to the University of Idaho after guiding the Lopers to a 101-23 record the past four years and to NCAA II national playoff berths each of the last three.
   

            Eighmey, a Peru State grad, left lots of talent behind for Johnson.  So far, the top scorers have been 5-11 Shiloh McCool and 6-1 Kia Wilson.  Both are super seniors who are averaging 13.8 points and 9 rebounds, and 11.4 and 5.8 rebounds, respectively.