The Colorado Mesa women's basketball team will host a pair of opponents in Brownson Arena this weekend in the final two regular season home games of the season. The Mavericks (19-4, 14-4) will take on the Regis Rangers (11-13, 7-11 RMAC) on Friday evening before a showdown with No. 13 Colorado School of Mines (21-3, 16-2 RMAC) on Saturday evening on Senior Night.
 
MAKE THAT FOUR
Senior Mariah Martin claimed her fourth RMAC Offensive Player of the Week honor this past week after her play during the Mavericks recent three-game road swing.
 
During the three-game road swing, she averaged 25.3 points and shot over 47 percent from the field. She was perfect from the free-throw line during the week and averaged over seven assists and rebounds per game.
 
She had 30 points and shot over 60 percent from the field against New Mexico Highlands. She finished just a rebound and two assists shy of a triple-double in the game. She followed it up with a 25-point effort in the win over UCCS and scored 21 points and nine rebounds against Adams State.
 
APPROACHING A MILESTONE
We honored senior Daniella Turner for reaching 1,000 points just a few weeks ago and now we have another senior quickly approaching the same milestone. Kelsey Siemons is sitting at 950 points in her career with roughly five games guaranteed left in her time at Colorado Mesa.
 
If and when she reaches the mark, she would become the 20^th player in program history to accomplish the feat as her teammate became the 19^th with her feat coming against Regis in their earlier matchup.
 
FOR THE SENIORS
The Mavericks will honor their five seniors on Saturday as they will be playing in their final regular season home games. The group of seniors have won plenty of games during their time with the program as they have competed in two regional tournaments and captured two RMAC conference regular season and tournament championships.
 
Mariah Martin, Savannah Domgaard, Kelsey Siemons, Daniella Turner and Sophie Anderson will all be honored on Saturday.
 
WHERE WE STAND
The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference recently announced that they were going to switch the standings to the NCAA RPI due to the complete schedule not going to be played by at least two games caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
 
With the first standings being released internally, the Mavericks were sitting in second place in the conference, but positions two through six were separated by less than .50 points.
 
SCOUTING THE RANGERS
Heading down the stretch, the Regis Rangers are on the outside looking in on the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament. With the change to the RPI standings announced this past week, a win over Colorado Mesa on the road would go a long way in ensuring they would make the tournament.
 
The Rangers are 11-13 overall and 7-11 in conference matchups. They fell to Colorado Mesa back on January 22 75-61 with the Mavericks playing without Sophie Anderson and Sophie Hadad getting hurt in the opening minutes of that matchup.
 
Josie Ryan is the Rangers top player but hasn't played in the month of February yet. Guard Tashika Burrell has played in and started all 24 games and has caused many teams problems with her speed. She scored a season-high 20 points against CSU Pueblo on January 29.
 
SCOUTING THE OREDIGGERS
The top team in the RMAC once again lies in Golden and will be in town on Saturday to nearly lock up the top spot in the conference with a win. The Orediggers come into the week ranked No. 13 in the latest WBCA Coaches National Poll and are led by Colorado Mesa alum Brittany Simpson.
 
Colorado School of Mines is 21-3 on the season and 16-2 in the conference. The defeated the Mavericks back on January 21, 59-51 in Lockridge Arena as the Mavericks were playing without starter Sophie Anderson.
 
The Orediggers boast two of the top players in the conference in Denali Pinto and Sammy Van Sickle. Pinto does it on the offensive end as she averages 14.3 points per game. She scored a career-high 38 points in the win over Fort Lewis last week. Her teammate, Van Sickle, gets it done on the defense end as she averages 7.1 rebounds and is one of the top shot blockers in the conference. She had a 17 rebound game earlier this season against Chadron State.
 
THE COACH
Head coach Taylor Wagner enters his tenth season as the man in charge of the Mavericks. He has amassed a 227-58 overall record (20+ wins per season average) and an astonishing 171-43 (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 on the road for their final two games of the season next week. They will take on their Western Slope rivals from Gunnison and Durango.