The Colorado Mesa women's basketball team will be on the road for the final two road games of the regular season. The Mavericks (21-4, 16-4 RMAC) will head to Gunnison on Thursday to take on the Western Colorado Mountaineers (10-14, 8-11 RMAC) before heading to Durango on Saturday for a matchup with Fort Lewis (2-23, 1-18 RMAC).
 
THREE-FOR-3
Senior Daniella Turner was named the RMAC Offensive Player of the Week for the third time this season after her performance against Regis and Colorado School of Mines.
 
Turner averaged 26 points and 3.5 assists in the Mavericks weekend sweep of Regis and #13 Colorado School of Mines. She shot 54 percent from the field including a perfect 6-for-6 from beyond the three-point line. She had a season-high 28 points and four assists in the win over the Orediggers that included shooting 56.3 percent from the floor and a perfect 4-for-4 from three.
 
APPROACHING A MILESTONE
Senior Kelsey Siemons is quickly approaching the 1,000-point milestone after last weekend's sweep of Regis and #13 Colorado School of Mines. Siemons currently has 973 points in her career that has now spanned a program-record 134 games in her five-year career.
 
The Tucson native is on the brink of another milestone as she currently sits at 198 blocked shots in her career. She would become the second player in program history to accomplish the feat along with all-time record holder Susan Luecke who blocked 272 shots in her career.
 
20-WIN SEASON
With their wins last weekend, the Mavericks secured another 20-win season under head coach Taylor Wagner. It is their seventh in the ten seasons he has been at the helm of the program including last year's COVID shortened season.
 
Prior to Wagner's arrival for the 2012-13 season, the Mavericks hadn't won 20 games since the 2002-03 season. Colorado Mesa has only had five 20-win seasons prior to the Wagner regime.
 
Colorado Mesa won 30 games in back-to-back seasons in Wagner's first two years.
 
WHERE WE STAND
Colorado Mesa sits in a good spot heading into the final weekend of the season. They are currently in second place in the standings but are guaranteed a top three seed in next week's conference tournament.
 
If the Mavericks win out, they will need Colorado School of Mines to drop one of their final two matchups with CSU Pueblo or Adams State to claim a share of the conference title. CSU Pueblo is the other team that is currently tied with Colorado Mesa that will factor into the final weekend.
 
SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS
Western Colorado is not having the year they had hoped to have and are currently riding a four-game losing streak into the weekend. Despite all that, they would like nothing more than to knock off the Mavericks during the final week of the season. The Mountaineer season is not all for not, they do have wins over CSU Pueblo, MSU Denver, and Angelo State.
 
Grace Kirscher leads the Mountaineers in points per game at 10.3 but hasn't played since February 1. Katie Dalton is second with 10 points and 4.3 rebounds per game and has played in 24 games with 21 starts. She had 16 points last weekend against Adams State and a season-high 22 points against UCCS earlier this month.
 
SCOUTING THE SKYHAWKS
Fort Lewis also hasn't had the year they had hoped either as they haven't won a game since December 11. Although, they have single possession losses against Adams State, Colorado Christian, and Regis in the last two weeks. Like their travel partners, it would make their season if they could knock the Mavericks off in the final game of the season.
 
Skyhawk Sydney Candalaria is a volume scorer as she takes a ton of shots but makes over 36 percent of her attempts. She averages 21.2 points per game which is the top mark in the RMAC. The senior scored a season-high 36 points against Regis and 33 points just two nights later against Colorado Christian. She played all 40 minutes in the previous matchup with Colorado Mesa and scored 21 points on 5-for-28 shooting from the field.
 
THE COACH
Head coach Taylor Wagner enters his tenth season as the man in charge of the Mavericks. He has amassed a 229-58 overall record (20+ wins per season average) and an astonishing 173-43 (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
Colorado Mesa will host a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference first round matchup on Tuesday. Their opponent that night could be MSU Denver, UCCS, or Adams State. The time of that game is still to be determined. If the men are at home that night also, they will play at 5:30pm, but if they are the lone matchup, it will be at 6pm.