CHADRON, Neb. – After snapping a losing streak with a key home victory and falling to the top-ranked team in the RMAC, the Chadron State women's basketball team has a quick turnaround this week, facing two regional rivals.

The Eagles (3-13, 2-8 RMAC) will travel to Rapid City to take on South Dakota Mines (4-13, 4-6 RMAC) on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. before battling Black Hills State (11-6, 7-3 RMAC) at home Thursday at 7:00 p.m. in the Chicoine Center.

Both games will be streamed live on the RMAC Network. Double Q Country and doubleqcountry.com will carry both games, with Tuesday's game on 97.5 and 105.9 FM and Thursday's game on 97.5 FM, with Dave Collins on the call. Tickets remain available for Thursday's home showdown. 

Looking Back
Chadron State snapped a seven-game losing streak with a decisive 20-point win over Westminster before suffering a 30-point loss to Colorado Mesa, who is tied for first in the RMAC standings.

RECAPS: Westminster | Colorado Mesa

Kyra Tanabe was a catalyst for Chadron's streak-snapping win, leading the Eagles with 11 points against the Griffins. The biggest bucket of the night was a Tanabe logo three to beat the first-half buzzer. 

Chadron State had been 0-for-15 from beyond the arc prior to hitting that shot, but the make allowed the Eagles to go into the locker room tied 20-20 before Chadron State outscored Westminster 43-23 in the second half to win 63-43. 

Lockdown Defense
Thursday's performance was a long time coming for the Chadron State defense, which entered the week having given up the most points per game in the conference. 

Against Westminster, CSC held its opponent to 43 points, which is 12 points fewer than any other opponent has scored against the Eagles this season. Chadron State also held the Griffins to opponent season-lows in field goal percentage (.254, 16-63) and three-point percentage (.045, 1-22). 

The Eagles also grabbed 49 rebounds as a team, the second-most by CSC in a game this season, including a season-high 38 defensive rebounds.

Top Performers
Bati Assefa excelled all weekend, grabbing a career-high 10 rebounds in the Westminster game and followed it up with six more against Colorado Mesa. Assefa also tied a Division II career high with six points against the Mavericks and added four points on perfect shooting (1-1 FG, 2-2 FT) against the Griffins. 

Allison Richards had a pair of double figure scoring games, finishing with 10 points against Westminster and 11 points against Colorado Mesa. Against the Mavericks, Richards finished 3 of 5 from the floor and 2 of 4 from three-point range. 

Kadyn Comer scored 10 last Thursday against Westminster, marking just the second time in the senior's career that the guard had put up double-digit points. Comer's career high of 15 points came against Northwestern back on November 26, 2022. Against Westminster, Comer shot 4 of 7 from the floor and made a three-pointer and also tallied a season-high two steals. 

Record Breaker
Ashayla Powers cemented her name among the Chadron State women's basketball greats when she became the program's all-time career rebounding leader with 615 rebounds. 

Powers achieved the milestone during the January 11 game against Regis, with her seventh and final rebound of the night lifting the senior past Eagle alumni Shauna Smith (1990-94) and Lorna Dahlgren (1991-95), who were tied at 614. Coincidentally, Powers broke the record in her 100^th career college game. 

In the Polls
Currently, no RMAC schools are ranked in either the WBCA Coaches Poll or the D2CSC Media Poll. The Eagles have faced multiple teams that are either ranked over receiving votes in both polls, including Montana State Billings (No. 20 in WBCA, RV in D2CSC), and Southwest Minnesota State (No. 23/22). 

The D2CSC Regional Polls rank four RMAC schools among the top 10 in the South Central region – Colorado Mesa at No. 4, Western Colorado at No. 5, Black Hills State at No. 7 and CSU Pueblo at No. 8. 

In a vote of the league's head coaches, Chadron State women's basketball earned a 13^th-place projection in the RMAC Preseason Coaches Poll, one spot higher than the Eagles finished in an injury-riddled year last season.

Five different schools received first-place votes in the poll, fitting for a conference that had a four-way tie for the regular season title last season. Colorado Mesa, the only RMAC school to reach the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season, led the poll, followed by UCCS, CSU Pueblo, Adams State, Colorado School of Mines and Regis.

MSU Denver and Colorado Christian snared the final RMAC Tournament positions in the preseason poll, followed by Black Hills State, Western Colorado, South Dakota Mines and Fort Lewis. After the Eagles in 13^th, the poll is rounded out by New Mexico Highlands and Westminster. 

Scouting the Hardrockers
South Dakota Mines is 4-13 overall, but all of SDM's wins have come in conference play as the Hardrockers have a 4-6 RMAC record. CSC previously beat the Hardrockers 71-67 in the Chicoine Center on December 5.

The Rapid City team's wins have come against Colorado Christian, Colorado School of Mines, Fort Lewis and Westminster, with the win over the Griffins coming last Saturday by a 62-49 score. Despite the Hardrockers' overall record, they have won three of their last five games. 

The Hardrockers have three double-digit scorers in Morning Grace Spotted Bear (13.5), Savea Mansfield (12.9) and Piper Bauer (12.6). Bauer recently broke the school record for career made three-pointers a week and a half ago against Adams State. Spotted Bear also ranks seventh in the RMAC with 8.8 rebounds per game.

Head Coach Jeri Owsley has been with South Dakota Mines since the 2019-20 season. She has led the Hardrockers to two RMAC Tournament berths. Historically, South Dakota Mines is 17-6 against Chadron State, but the two programs have split the last six meetings.

Scouting the Yellow Jackets
Black Hills State is 11-6 overall and 7-3 in the RMAC. The Yellow Jackets were 7-1 but suffered an 0-2 week last week, falling to co-league leaders Colorado Mesa 56-41 and Western Colorado 56-51. 

Black Hills State has the third-best team defense (59.1 points allowed per game) and the third-best scoring margin in the RMAC (+5.4).

Seniors Kalla Bertram (13.6 points per game) and Haylee Weathersby (13.4) both rank in the top 15 in scoring in the RMAC. Morgan Hammerbeck (11.5) and Bradie Schlabs (10.8) also average in double figures. 

The Yellow Jackets defeated Chadron State 60-52 back on December 7 and have won 26 of the last 28 matchups. BHSU Head Coach Rachel Erickson, a Yellow Jacket alum, is in her first season in charge of the program.

Coach's Corner
Head Coach Travis Brewster is back for his second season leading the Chadron State women's basketball program. 

A veteran head coach, Brewster was previously a head coach at the University of North Dakota for eight seasons, going 128-120 with the Fighting Hawks and winning two Big Sky Coach of the Year awards in 2014 and 2017. In his time at UND, Brewster won two Big Sky co-regular season championships and one Big Sky tournament championship with one NCAA Tournament appearance in 2014 and one WNIT appearance in 2017.  

He was also a head coach for two seasons with Saint Xavier (NAIA), where he put together a 45-16 record. He was the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA) Coach of the Year in 2022, a year he also led Saint Xavier to a conference championship and NAIA national tournament berth. 

As a student-athlete, Brewster competed at Iowa Lakes Community College and Charleston Southern University before playing professionally in Switzerland and Ireland.