The Colorado Mesa women's basketball team has a couple of important matchups prior to the NCAA mandated holiday break next week. The Mavericks will take on Adams State on Friday prior to a showdown with No. 23 CSU Pueblo both scheduled to begin at 5:30pm.
 
DYNAMIC DUO
The Colorado Mesa duo of Daniella Turner and Kelsey Siemons swept the RMAC Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week honors after their performance against Black Hills State and Chadron State in Brownson Arena.
 
Turner averaged 23 points and 2.5 assists while shooting 58.3 percent from the field during the Mavericks weekend sweep of Black Hills State and Chadron State. She scored a season-high 28 points in the Mavericks overtime win over Black Hills State and backed it up with an 18-point effort against Chadron State.
 
Siemons was a defensive stalwart over the weekend. She averaged 13.5 rebounds and five blocks in the two games and rounded out her defensive effort with a double-double in each game. She was just three blocked shots shy of a triple-double in the win over Black Hills State as she had 16 points, a career-high 16 rebounds and seven blocked shots in the win.
 
Turner and Siemons join teammate Mariah Martin as RMAC Player of the Week honorees this season.
 
SINK EM
Newcomer Mariah Martin has been a great addition in nearly all aspects of the game but may have had the greatest impact so far at the free-throw line. Martin is currently the top free-throw shooter in the country at 96.9 percent having made 35-of-37 from the stripe.
 
The Sandy, Utah native has made 16 consecutive free-throws dating back to the Colorado Christian matchup. Her only other miss came in the season opener against Texas Permian Basin.
 
Colorado Mesa, as a team, is up to No. 6 in the country in free-throw percentage at 82.6 percent.
 
AGAINST RANKED OPPONENTS
When the Mavericks take on CSU Pueblo on Saturday, it will mark the 15^th time head coach Taylor Wagner and his group have taken on a ranked opponent from the WBCA National poll. In those matchups, Colorado Mesa is just 4-10 with one of those wins coming last season against No. 21 Western Colorado on February 26, a 58-43 win in Brownson Arena.
 
SCOUTING THE GRIZZLIES
Colorado Mesa is 47-9 all-time against Adams State in the series and have won the past 19 matchups dating back to the 2010-11 season. Head coach Taylor Wagner has won 17 straight games against the Grizzlies heading into this matchup.
 
Adams State enters with a 4-5 overall record on the season with wins over Northern New Mexico, SAGU AIC, New Mexico Highlands and South Dakota Mines. One of their losses was a narrow defeat to Midwestern State on the road, 67-65 in Wichita Falls, Texas.
 
Stephanie Ruiz leads the Grizzlies at 10.9 points per game and makes over 39 percent of her three-point attempts. She had a season-high 20 points against Northern New Mexico and finished with 11 points against nationally ranked CSU Pueblo.
 
SCOUTING THE THUNDERWOLVES
The Mavericks are just 28-24 all-time against their opponents from Pueblo. Colorado Mesa is on a three-game winning streak against the ThunderWolves but are just 6-6 in the last 12 matchups.
 
CSU Pueblo has had an outstanding start to the season as they are 7-2 with losses to No. 10 Texas A&M-Commerce and Division I Colorado State. They hold a win over then No.1 Lubbock Christian as part of a conference crossover event in Denver.
 
JaNaiya Davis leads the Pack averaging 11 points per game and has seen action in all nine games this season. Davis has been hot during the conference stretch as she averages 15 points per game in RMAC contests. She had a season-high 23 points in the win over New Mexico Highlands.
 
THE COACH
Head coach Taylor Wagner enters his tenth season as the man in charge of the Mavericks. He has amassed a 214-55 overall record (20+ wins per season average) and an astonishing 158-40 (15+ wins per season average) mark inside the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference during his tenure.
 
He has guided the Mavericks to five NCAA Tournament and made a trip to the NCAA Elite Eight during his first season with the program. He has been named the RMAC Coach of the Year five times in that span.
 
ON THE HORIZON
Colorado Mesa will be off next week for the NCAA mandated holiday break. They will be back in action on December 31 (New Year's Eve) when they travel to Colorado Springs to take on UCCS at 3pm before a New Year's Day showdown with New Mexico Highlands also at 3pm.