The Colorado Mesa women's basketball team will take on a pair of Western Slope foes this weekend in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action. The Mavericks will take on the Fort Lewis Skyhawks on Friday evening at 5:30pm in Durango before a trek north to Gunnison for a showdown with RMAC rival Western Colorado at 5pm on Saturday.
 
WEEKEND ROUNDUP
The Mavericks split the weekend at home dropping a 58-50 decision to Colorado School of Mines on Friday behind 15 points from Kylyn Rigsby and 14 points from Natalie Bartle. On Saturday, they defeated the Regis Rangers 66-55 behind Rigsby's 34 point, 11 rebound effort. Kelsey Siemons also added 15 points in the win.
 
CAREER NIGHT
Senior Kylyn Rigsby had a career-night in the Mavericks win over Regis on Saturday night. The DeBeque, Colo. native scored a career-high 34 points on 12-of-26 shooting from the field including four made three-pointers. That topped her previous high of 26 points that she scored against MSU Denver during the opening round of the RMAC Tournament last season.
 
Rigsby didn't only have a career-night in scoring but also in rebounding. She pulled down a career-high 11 rebounds, including eight on the defensive end, while playing all 40 minutes of the game.
 
DEFENSIVE SPARK
Senior Morgan Myers-Pack made the most of her opportunities over the weekend, especially on the defensive end of the floor. Myers-Pack did her best in keeping the Mavericks in the game against the Orediggers. She finished with a season-high seven points but had a career-high five steals in the game.
 
The St. George, Utah native had a +4 +/- rating in the game during her 21 minutes of game action.
 
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)
Free Throw Attempts: 234 (9)
Rebounds: 483 (7)
Scoring Defense: 54.1 (9)
Turnovers Per Game: 11.9 (6)
 
HISTORY AND SCOUTING THE SKYHAWKS
The Mavericks are 8-2 in the last ten matchups with Fort Lewis with both of those losses coming during the 2017 year. They also own a 39-20 overall mark against the Skyhawks that dates back to the 1988 season with Colorado Mesa winning 91-52 in Durango.
 
The Skyhawks are 4-4 on the season with losses coming to Western Colorado, Black Hills State, Colorado School of Mines and a forfeit loss to South Dakota Mines due to some COVID-19 protocols. Their four wins have been by an average of less than four points.
 
Sophomore Jordan Vasquez leads Fort Lewis in scoring and rebounding at 18.3 points and 8.4 rebounds per game. The Farmington, N.M. native had 25 points and 13 rebounds in the close loss to Colorado School of Mines. She also had a double-double in the narrow win over Colorado Christian with 15 points and 14 rebounds.
 
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 have an odd week next week. They will host the Westminster Griffins at 5:30pm on Tuesday in Brownson Arena before heading out on a long road trip to Rapid City, S.D. for a single game on Friday at 5:30pm against the South Dakota Mines Hardrockers.
 
QUICK HITTERS
*The RMAC is scheduled to release the RPI standings this week (Jan. 25) but have yet to see them. Once those are released, we will update you in the weekly previews.