CHADRON, Neb. – After losing in the final seconds on Tuesday, getting a huge rivalry win on Thursday and having the weekend to rest, Chadron State women's basketball will look to keep the momentum going with two more home games this upcoming week. 

The Eagles (4-14, 3-9 RMAC) will host Colorado Christian (6-14, 4-8 RMAC) on Thursday at 5 p.m. before facing off against CSU Pueblo (13-7, 8-4 RMAC) on Saturday at 1 p.m., with both games at the Chicoine Center in Chadron.

Both games will be streamed by CSC Live on the RMAC Network. Double Q Country and doubleqcountry.com will carry both games on 97.5 FM, with Dave Collins on the call. Tickets remain available for both games and can be purchased online and at the door. 

Looking Back
Chadron State had a valiant comeback attempt fall just short in a 65-64 loss to South Dakota Mines before the Eagles responded with a 60-50 win over Black Hills State.

RECAPS: South Dakota Mines | Black Hills State

The Black Hills victory was monumental as the Yellow Jackets had previously won 13 straight against the CSC women prior to Thursday's win. The Eagles nearly had a 2-0 week, coming back from 13 down in the fourth quarter to take a lead with 13 seconds to go, but South Dakota Mines scored at the other end to emerge with the one-point win.

Promo Plugs
Wednesday, February 5 marks National Girls and Women in Sports Day, and Chadron State will be putting on multiple activities in commemoration of the occasion this week. 

During both Thursday and Saturday's women basketball games, the 50^th Anniversary Title IX Committee will have a table set up in the lobby of the Chicoine Center to allow kids up to 8^th grade the opportunity to participate in a Mock Signing Day, with a backdrop setup and mock certificates to sign. 

National Girls and Woman in Sports Day will also be the focus of CSC's weekly All Sport Camp this Friday. This week's camp will be hosted by the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). 

Eagles All Sport Camp – Click To Register

All after-school camp attendees this Friday will receive free admission for themselves and their family to Saturday's basketball game. 

No Small Task
The Eagles will face a tough test containing Alisha Little, the reigning RMAC Defensive Player of the Year for CSU Pueblo who scored 23 points with 12 rebounds against the Eagles in a game earlier this season. 

Little has been doing that to everybody, however – she leads the RMAC in both points (25.4) and rebounds per game (11.8), ranking second and sixth in all of Division II, respectively. 

This Monday, Little swept the RMAC's Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week awards, doing so for the fourth time this season. She leads Division II with 16 double-doubles. 

Counting To Ten
Megan Counts made career history in the win over Black Hills State by grabbing a career-high in rebounds and logging her first career double-double in the process. 

The Wyoming native finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds and two steals against the Yellow Jackets, surpassing her previous career high of seven boards which she had achieved three times. 

On the season, Counts is averaging 4.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in 16.9 minutes per game. She has found herself in the starting lineup more recently, starting both games last week to give her eight starts in CSC's 18 games played. 

Fourth Quarter Tear
Kyra Tanabe almost single-handedly led the Eagles to a come-from-behind victory during last Tuesday's matchup with South Dakota Mines. 

The Hawaiian guard scored 14 of her 16 points during the fourth quarter as the Eagles rallied from a double-digit deficit. Against the Hardrockers, Tanabe finished with 16 points of 6 of 13 shooting from the field, making 2 of 4 three-pointers and adding six rebounds and a steal. 

Tanabe added nine points and two steals against the Yellow Jackets, shooting 3 of 6 from the field to finish the week at 47 percent shooting. For the season, Tanabe ranks fourth on the team with 8.7 points per game.

Stat Spotlights
Chadron State has three double-figure scorers in Allison Richards (10.8 points per game), Ashayla Powers (10.7) and Kylie Krise (10.1). Richards overtook Powers as the team's leading scorer for the season due in part to a 16-point performance in the win over Black Hills State. 

The Eagles are one of the top free throw shooting teams in the RMAC, ranking second in the conference and eighth in all of Division II with a 79.3 percentage. Colorado Christian ranks second in the nation, making 81.3 percent.

The Eagles are also a strong rebounding margin, ranking third in the RMAC in total team rebounds per game (38.7) and second in defensive rebounds per game (28.2). CSC ranks sixth in the RMAC in rebounding margin, with the Eagles at +1.2 per game.

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, although Colorado Mesa is receiving votes in the D2CSC Poll. The Eagles have faced multiple teams that are either ranked over receiving votes in both polls, including Montana State Billings (No. 18 in WBCA, RV in D2CSC), and Southwest Minnesota State (No. 19/22). 

The D2CSC Regional Polls rank five RMAC schools among the top 10 in the South Central region – Colorado Mesa at No. 4, Western Colorado at No. 6, CSU Pueblo at No. 7, Black Hills State at No. 9 and Adams State at No. 10. 

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 Cougars
Picked eighth in the preseason poll, Colorado Christian is currently 6-14 and currently outside the RMAC Tournament positions with a 4-8 conference record. 

The Cougars have been much better of late, as they are 5-5 in their last 10 games after a 1-9 start. They are coming off a 1-1 week at home where they lost to Westminster 63-58 and defeated Western Colorado 58-37. 

Colorado Christian's leading scorer is junior point guard Nicole Bowlin, who averages 12.5 points per game and has made 32 three-pointers. Overland Park, Kansas freshman Elise Grosdidier scored 28 points in her two and a half weeks ago against Colorado School of Mines.

The Cougars score 63.5 points per game (just ahead of CSC's 62.8) and allow 66.2 per game. CCU ranks second in the RMAC in three-point percentage, shooting 30.9 percent as a team. Interim Head Coach Carissa Ratliff took the reins this October having previously served as an assistant coach with CCU from 2019-2021.

Scouting the ThunderWolves
The talented CSU Pueblo ThunderWolves were picked third in the RMAC preseason poll and are currently right in that ballpark, at 13-7 overall and in a four-way tie for second place in the RMAC at 8-4 in conference. 

Last week, CSU Pueblo lost 72-65 to league-leading Colorado Mesa but recovered to beat Westminster 76-42. The ThunderWolves beat Chadron State 72-61 at home earlier this year on December 12. 

Alisha Little is the conference's leading scorer and rebounder, so the ThunderWolves do not have another double-digit scorer, but they have three players (Tomia Johnson, Brynae Stewart and Landri Hudson) averaging between seven and eight points per game. 

The ThunderWolves are coached by Tommie Johnson, in his sixth season. He was previously a men's basketball assistant coach from 2008-2016 at CSU Pueblo and a women's assistant coach at the University of Denver. Under his direction, CSU Pueblo ranks in the top six in both scoring offense (sixth, 64.7) and scoring defense (fourth, 62.3). 

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.