Colorado Mesa will host the Westminster Griffins in a rare Tuesday (Feb. 2) evening affair in Brownson Arena. Parents and the CMU Community will be welcome at the game with purchase of a ticket and a negative COVID test within 96 hours of the event. Reserved tickets will be on sale for those individuals wishing to sit in the chair back section of Brownson Arena.
 
WEEKEND ROUNDUP
Colorado Mesa defeated the Fort Lewis Skyhawks 71-49 in their lone matchup of the week as their game with Western Colorado was postponed. The Mavericks limited the Skyhawks to just 32.7 percent shooting from the field and forced 17 turnovers and had a 43-32 edge on in rebounds.
 
Kylyn Rigsby led three players in double figures with 26 points while Natalie Bartle added 17 points and Kelsey Siemons finished with 12 points.
 
SHOOTING THE LIGHTS OUT
Senior Kylyn Rigsby has been on fire the last two games while also being consistent over the last ten games. In her last two games, the DeBeque, Colo. native is averaging 30 points per game and is shooting 50 percent from the field and a little over 42 percent from beyond the three-point arc.
 
Rigsby has scored ten or more points in last ten games and raised her scoring average from 10.3 points per game on December 11 to 16 points per game after the win against Fort Lewis.
 
PRESSURE DEFENSE
Senior guard Sophie Anderson put a big emphasis on defense in the Mavericks win over Fort Lewis. The Paonia, Colo. native pulled down a career-high 11 rebounds including eight on the defensive end and was able to limit former Maverick, now Skyhawk Katrina Chandler to just five points, two assists and forced two turnovers of her.
 
Anderson also handed out a career-high seven assists while scoring three points, all from the free-throw line.
 
HISTORY AND SCOUTING THE GRIFFINS
The Mavericks and Griffins have a friendly rivalry that seems to poke its head up at the biggest moments of the year. Colorado Mesa defeated Westminster 60-48 in the RMAC Tournament Championship game last season.
 
Colorado Mesa is 11-4 all-time against the Griffins including a 7-1 mark in Brownson Arena. They have won three of the past four matchups with all three of those matchups coming in Grand Junction. The Griffins had five of their first seven games canceled or postponed this season, nonetheless, they are 6-2 in their games played.
 
Senior Hunter Krebs paces the Griffins as she averages 14.6 points and 6.1 rebounds per game this season. She scored 25 against MSU Denver but has yet to reach the double digit rebound plateau having pulled in eight rebounds three times.
 
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
Colorado Mesa will make the trek to Rapid City for a single game on Friday February 5 against the South Dakota Mines Hardrockers at 5:30pm. The Hardrockers are the lone wolf this season and will face Colorado Mesa and Westminster on the weekend.
 
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.
 
*Colorado Mesa and Western Colorado have been in discussions about a make-up date for the postponed game from this past weekend. Stay tuned to CMUMavericks.com for the latest updates and announcements.