Colorado Mesa will close out the weeklong home stand on Saturday with a matchup against Black Hills State at 5:30pm on Saturday in Brownson Arena. The Mavericks will be looking for some revenge as the Yellow Jackets handed them their lone loss on the year back in December in Spearfish, S.D.
 
WEEKDAY RECAP
Colorado Mesa started the New Year off on the right foot with an 89-57 win over UCCS in a Monday evening contest. Four Mavericks scored in double figures and the defense forced 24 turnovers and converted those into 34 points. The defense held the Mountain Lions under 40 percent from the field and just four made field goals in the second half.
 
WIN #200
Colorado Mesa head coach Taylor Wagner picked up his 200^th win of his Maverick career in Monday's win. The 200 wins puts him in second on the all-time wins list behind Steve Kirkham who had 299 wins in his 16-year stint. Wagner is 200-47, winning 81 percent of the total games, and has sent the Mavericks to the NCAA Tournament in five of the eight completed seasons
 
Wagner is one of three RMAC coaches that have 200 wins in their career, Tanya Haave at MSU Denver and Mark Nore at Black Hills State are the others.
 
The win also gave him 150 wins in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference just one behind Haave, who currently has 151 RMAC wins, as the active leader.
 
BALANCED SCORING
The Mavericks have had balanced scoring this year and it has led to one of their best offensive teams during head coach Taylor Wagner's nine seasons with the program. They are averaging 75.7 points per game, the most in the past nine years, just ahead of the Elite Eight team in 2012-13 that averaged 72.7 points per game.
 
They have four players averaging 10 points or more per game led by Natalie Bartle's 15.6 points a night followed closely by returning all-American Daniella Turner's 15.4 points per game. Kylyn Rigsby averages 13.4 and is rounded out by Kelsey Siemons at 10.6 per game.
 
GETTING TO THE LINE
Speaking of Natalie Bartle, she is in rarified air in the early season. She currently is the national leader in free-throw attempts and is now second in makes going 43-for-56.
 
NATIONAL STATISTICS RANKINGS
Colorado Mesa jumped up to the top spot in the national statistics rankings in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.52. The Mavericks have 117 assists this season led by Kylyn Rigsby with 25, ranking her 23^rd nationally, and have committed just 77 turnovers.
 
Check out where Colorado Mesa ranks in several other categories nationally:
 
STATISTICAL CATEGORY (National Rank)
Assist-to-Turnover Ratio: 1.52 (1)
Assists: 117 (4)
Blocked Shots: 26 (7)
Field Goal Percentage Defense: 32.5 (6)
Rebounds: 287 (4)
Scoring Defense: 52.6 (8)
Scoring Margin: 23.1 (5)
Three-Point Field Goals Attempted: 162 (8)
Three-Point Field Goals Made: 61 (3)
Turnovers Per Game: 11.0 (4)
 
HISTORY AND SCOUTING THE YELLOW JACKETS
Colorado Mesa and Black Hills State has turned into a bit of a friendly rivalry since the Yellow Jackets have joined the conference. The Mavericks own the all-time edge 11-6 and are 8-1 at home in the series.
 
The Yellow Jackets have benefitted from playing three of the top five RMAC teams (Colorado Mesa, Colorado School of Mines and Westminster) at home thus far. Their lone loss of the season came in the opener on the road at Western Colorado.
 
Black Hills State has been sensational offensively averaging 70.3 points per game and shooting 37.7 percent from beyond the arc and 78.1 percent from the free-throw line. They are allowing opponents to shoot over 41 percent and are getting outrebounded by 5.4 rebounds a game.
 
If you want an early front runner for RMAC Player of the Year, look no further than Black Hills State's Racquel Wientes. The senior is averaging 23.1 points and six rebounds this season and has scored 20 or more in four of her seven games this season. She netted a season-high 32 points in a win over Regis on January 3.
 
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.
 
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 have just one matchup on the upcoming weekend and it is a big one. They will take on the Black Hills State Yellow Jackets on Saturday at 5:30pm in Brownson Arena. Black Hills State dealt the Mavericks their lone loss of the season in Spearfish on December 11.
 
QUICK HITTERS
*Pandemonium has taken over at the top of the RMAC standings after results early this week. There are no more unbeatens as both Colorado School of Mines and Western Colorado have both fallen. Mines dropped an overtime contest to Black Hills in Spearfish while Western Colorado fell to South Dakota Mines at home on Tuesday. As a reminder, the RMAC Champion will be determined by the NCAA RPI system and not by win-loss record due to the COVID pandemic.
 
*Fans will soon be able to watch Maverick Basketball in person as Mesa County COVID protocols are changing. We don't have an exact date or number yet of when this will happen, at this time we do know you will have to have a negative COVID test within 96 hours of the event. Stay tuned to CMUMavericks.com and our social media channels for updates.