The Colorado Mesa women's basketball team will take a unique road trip this weekend. They will start it off on Friday night with a matchup against No. 18 Colorado School of Mines (13-1, 8-0 RMAC) followed by a Saturday afternoon tilt with Regis (9-6, 5-4 RMAC) for their regularly scheduled games. They will then head north for one of their three makeup games as they take on Black Hills State (8-7, 6-3 RMAC) on Monday at 4pm.
 
MILESTONE WATCH
Senior Daniella Turner is nearing the 1,000-point milestone and could reach it this weekend. The Boca Raton, Fla. native is just 30 points shy of reaching the mark and is averaging 18.0 points per game this season. Turner would become the 19^th career Maverick to eclipse the 1,000-point barrier.
 
Another stat stuffer for Turner is that her next rebound will set a career season high. She currently has 91 rebounds on the season matching her output from her all-American year in 2019-20.
 
DIRTY WORK
Senior Sophie Anderson doesn't get a lot of the recognition on the team but provides toughness and does a lot of the dirty work that may or may not show up in the stat sheet. She leads the team in offensive rebounds with 34 is second in blocked shots with 10. Offensively, she is second in assists with 32 and has committed just 14 turnovers on the year.
 
Anderson has started 62 games in her career and is setting her career-high point average this year at 6.8 points and in her last game scored a career-high 18 points in the win over Colorado Christian.
 
DEEDE DOES THE JOB
True freshman Lauryn Deede has bided her time for most of the year and now is starting to see the dividends. The first action she saw this year came in the lopsided win over Park where she had 12 points and four rebounds in 10 minutes of action.
 
Fast forward to the last three games, she has averaged over 15 minutes per game in a stretch that includes CSU Pueblo, MSU Denver and Colorado Christian. She scored six points and had five rebounds in the loss to MSU Denver but came back to play a season-high 24 minutes in the win over Colorado Christian where she had two points, two rebounds, an assist, and a blocked shot.
 
SCOUTING THE OREDIGGERS
Colorado School of Mines enters the week atop the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference standings with a perfect 8-0 mark in conference games. They enter the weekend ranked No. 13 in the WBCA National Poll with their lone loss coming against now No. 14 ranked Nebraska-Kearney.
 
Former Maverick Brittany Simpson leads the Orediggers and has them poised for a long tournament run with deep veteran group with six senior or graduate students on the roster.
 
The Orediggers have four players averaging 10 or more points led by Denali Pinto. The Boulder native averages 12.5 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. She had a season-high 27 in a win over St. Edward's but had 24 against South Dakota Mines last weekend in a win.
 
SCOUTING THE RANGERS
Regis comes into the weekend with an overall mark of 9-6 and 5-4 in the RMAC but they are just 2-3 in their last five matchups. They defeated Chadron State and South Dakota Mines but fell to Western Colorado, Black Hills State and UCCS. A couple of early season wins against St. Edward's and St. Mary's could keep them in the running for a NCAA Regional bid.
 
Junior Josie Ryan leads the Rangers in scoring at 13.3 points per game and has been in double figures in 12 of the 15 games she has played in. She had a season-high 21 against Fort Lewis and scored 20 points in their most recent matchup with UCCS this past Tuesday.
 
SCOUTING THE YELLOWJACKETS
Black Hills State is 2-1 off the NCAA Winter Break with wins over Regis and Chadron State with their lone loss coming to Colorado School of Mines. The Yellowjackets are 4-2 since the Mavericks beat them in overtime in Brownson Arena back on December 10.
 
Another thing to keep in mind in this matchup will be that Black Hills will be playing their second game in four days while the Mavericks will be playing their third game in three days.
 
Danica Kocer and Morgan Engesser have been providing the scoring for Black Hills State with Kocer averaging 9.3 points and Engesser 9.2. Kocer had just one point in the last matchup between the schools while Engesser had 11.
 
THE COACH
Head coach Taylor Wagner enters his tenth season as the man in charge of the Mavericks. He has amassed a 219-56 overall record (20+ wins per season average) and an astonishing 160-40 (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
The Mavericks will be back at home for a pair of games against Western Colorado rivals. They are set to take on Fort Lewis on Friday then the Blizzard in Brownson presented by Coca Cola on Saturday against Western Colorado.