The Colorado Mesa women's basketball team will head back out on the road this weekend for two matchups on the Front Range. They will take on MSU Denver on Friday at 5:30pm at the Auraria Event Center before a 5pm tilt with Colorado Christian on Saturday at the CCU Events Center. This is the second time this season the teams will be squaring off with one and other.
 
WEEKEND ROUNDUP
The Mavericks had a 2-0 week although the games were split apart by quite a few days. They defeated UCCS 89-57 on Monday behind a 20-point effort from Daniella Turner and scored 34 points off 24 Mountain Lion turnovers. On Saturday, they were able to avenge their lone loss of the season by defeating Black Hills State 65-58 in Brownson Arena in front of 123 fans.
 
RMAC DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Senior Kelsey Siemons was named the RMAC Defensive Player of the Week after her performances against UCCS and Black Hills State. Siemons averaged seven rebounds, 1.5 blocks and 1.5 steals on the week in helping the Mavericks to a 2-0 week.
 
This past week Siemons moved into second on the all-time blocks list with 116 career blocks. She has 14 blocks in eight games this season, ranking her first in the conference and 14^th nationally. She now trails only Susan Luecke (1996-00) who had 272 blocks in her career.
 
STINGY
Head coach Taylor Wagner preaches defense from day one and the Maverick defense has been stingy this year. They are tops in the conference and No. 11 nationally in scoring defense allowing 53.2 points per game and gave up a season-low 28 points this year to Chadron State on December 12.
 
As a precursor to scoring, the Mavericks have allowed opponents to shoot just 32.9 percent from the field which is also the top mark in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and No. 14 nationally.
 
FITTING INTO HER ROLE
Senior Savannah Domgaard is settling into her role with the Mavericks this year. She is coming off a game with UCCS where she was a perfect 3-for-3 from the field and 2-for-2 from three-point land while pulling down four rebounds in over 16 minutes of action. Her defense continues to improve week-by-week and her minutes continue to increase with it.
 
For the season, she has played in all eight games averaging 12.3 minutes, 3.1 points and 1.8 rebounds per game.
 
SHOOTING HER SHOT
Senior Kylyn Rigsby continues to put up three-pointers at a high rate dating back to her sophomore season. The difference this year…they are going in at a high rate. Her three-point percentage sits at 38.3 percent this year which is No. 12 in the conference. Her 23 made threes ranks are second in the conference and seventh nationally.
The percentage number is nearly 10 points higher than it was a year ago where she finished 29.7 percent and just 65 made threes.
 
NATIONAL STATISTICS RANKINGS
Here is the updated list of where Colorado Mesa falls in the National Statistics Rankings.
 
Mavericks in the top-10 in National Rankings (National Rank)
Assist-to-Turnover Ratio: 1.51 (5)
Assists: 130 (7)
Blocked Shots: 32 (9)
Rebounds: 324 (9)
Three-Point Field Goals Made: 65 (9)
Turnovers Per Game: 10.8 (5)
 
HISTORY AND SCOUTING THE ROADRUNNERS
MSU Denver and Colorado Mesa will also be playing their second game of the season against each other as the Mavericks defeated the Roadrunners in the second game of the season 91-57 behind a 29-point effort from Daniella Turner.
 
Colorado Mesa is inching closer to evening the all-time series with the Roadrunners who still own a 26-21 advantage over the Mavericks but have won the last four meetings in the series and are 7-3 in the last 10 matchups.
 
Senior transfer Allie Navarette is having a RMAC Player of the Year type of year as she is averaging 18.7 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. She had 16 points and four rebounds in the previous matchup with the Mavericks and poured in a season-high 29 points in the Roadrunners 64-62 win over South Dakota Mines.
 
HISTORY AND SCOUTING THE COUGARS
Colorado Mesa defeated Colorado Christian in the season opener 75-61 back on December 4. Natalie Bartle led all scorers with 21 points while Daniella Turner chipped in 20. The 61 points that the Cougars scored is the second-most points scored by a Maverick opponent this season.
 
The Mavericks are 25-9 all-time against Colorado Christian and are on a three-game winning streak and are 7-3 in the last ten matchups against the Cougars.
 
The Cougars are led by senior Lourdes Gonzalez who averages 13.5 points and seven rebounds per game. Gonzalez had 12 points and 12 rebounds in the previous matchup with Colorado Mesa and had a season-high 24 points in the Cougars 76-69 win over South Dakota Mines.
 
HEAD MAN
Head coach Taylor Wagner enters his ninth season as the head of the women's basketball program. He has led the program to five RMAC regular season championships and five NCAA South Central Region Tournaments. The Mavericks won the regional tournament in his first season (2012-13) sending the program to the NCAA Elite Eight for the first time.
 
In three of the five regional tournaments, the Mavericks have made it past the first round and have accrued a NCAA Tournament record of 6-4 during the Wagner era.
 
During this season, Coach Wagner captured his 200^th win with Colorado Mesa after an 89-57 win over UCCS on January 4. He currently sits in second in program history in wins as a coach.
 
FREE YEAR
With uncertainty rampant during the college basketball season this year, the NCAA granted all winter sports student athletes (Basketball, Wrestling, Indoor Track, Swimming & Diving) an extra year of eligibility similar to what took place during the fall season with football, volleyball, soccer and cross country.
 
What does that mean to the Mavericks women's basketball team? All eight seniors could return for a fifth year of eligibility if they would like to.
 
THE RMAC
The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference will look a little different this year in terms of the standings. With every team not able to play the same amount of games this year, the conference decided to implement the NCAA Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) or Performance Indicator (PI) to determine the standings this year.
 
Here is a quick rundown of how the RPI or PI works:

• Teams will earn points based on their opponent and whether they win or lose each week. The better the opponent the more points you earn whether you win or lose.
• The breaks for opponents occur at .250, .500 and .750 winning percentages and can change all year long.
• Once a team has their points, they will be divided by the number of games that have been played this year to get their RPI or PI number.
• The highest RPI or PI will be the conference champion.

 
WHAT'S NEXT
The Mavericks will head back home for a pair of matchups with Colorado School of Mines and Regis. The Orediggers are currently 5-2 and 4-2 in the conference while the Rangers are 2-3 overall and 2-2in the RMAC.