GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The annual Blizzard in Brownson has some added juice this year as a matchup between two top-10 teams, with the No. 7 Mavericks taking on No. 8 Fort Lewis in a clash between last season's co-RMAC regular season champions.

Both teams will enter the game with identical 15-2 records, with the Mavericks currently leading the RMAC with an 11-0 record and the Skyhawks just behind at 10-1 in conference. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. as the second half of a doubleheader with the women's game. Fans are encouraged to get to Brownson early on Friday night for giveaways and seating.

Friday's game will be the only one of the weekend, but it'll still be a quick turnaround moving forward, as the Mavericks play on Tuesday and Thursday of next week against local rivals Western Colorado and Westminster before resuming to a Friday/Saturday weekend schedule on February 9 and 10.

Looking Back
Colorado Mesa extended its unbeaten RMAC start with two home wins last weekend against Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines, beating the Yellow Jackets 80-57 and the Hardrockers 81-56.  

RECAPS: Black Hills State | South Dakota Mines

Trevor Baskin recorded a pair of double-doubles, going for 19 points and 15 rebounds against BHSU and 16 points and 10 rebounds against South Dakota Mines. In Friday's game, the Mavericks held a tight two-point lead at halftime, but outscored Black Hills 46-25 in the second half to pull away. The Mavs built their lead in the first half on Saturday, holding a 45-28 lead at the break after shooting 50 percent from three as a team in the first half against the Hardrockers.

Getting Chilly
Friday's game will be the annual Blizzard in Brownson, presented by Swire Coca-Cola. Students and Maverick fans are encouraged to wear all white for the doubleheader, with the women's game starting at 5:30 p.m. and the men's game tipping off around 7:30.

The night will be filled with giveaways, as the first 2,000 fans will get a CMU rally towel. Presenting sponsor Coca-Cola and Colorado Mesa's Sustainability Council will also be giving away branded items throughout the evening, including drawstring backpacks and Coke products. There will also be opportunities to enter giveaways for larger items, like cornhole boards and a cooler.

Additionally, select CMU athletes will accept a $10,000 scholarship check from Swire Coca-Cola at halftime of the men's game.

Mac-colades
The achievements keep rolling in for Mac Riniker.

Last weekend, Riniker became the 21^st player in Maverick program history to reach 1,000 career points by scoring 13 in a win over Black Hills State. Riniker has kept up elite efficiency as his offensive role has slowly expanded over the years, as the guard/forward has a career field-goal percentage of .584 and more than doubling his scoring average from the 2020-21 season this year.

Then, Riniker earned another RMAC Defensive Player of the Week award from the conference office on Monday, the second straight time and fourth time this season that Riniker has won the honor. The redshirt junior leads the conference with 40 steals and 2.4 steals per game and ranks fifth in the RMAC with 18 blocks while averaging 14.8 points (15^th in RMAC) and 5.5 rebounds (11^th in RMAC) per game.

Standings Check
With the 22-game conference schedule at its halfway point, the RMAC has developed into a three-horse race at the top, with a dogfight developing for the final tournament qualification places.
Here is a look at the top half of the RMAC standings through this weekend's games:
 

School	RMAC Record	Overall
#7 Colorado Mesa	11-0	15-2
#14 Colorado School of Mines	11-1	17-3
#8 Fort Lewis	10-1	15-2
Chadron State	6-5	9-8
Black Hills State	5-5	7-9
MSU Denver	5-6	11-6
CSU Pueblo	5-6	9-8
Regis	5-6	8-9
South Dakota Mines	5-6	7-10

Friday's matchup with Fort Lewis could go a long way towards determining the RMAC regular season championship. Since this is the only time CMU and Fort Lewis will play in the regular season, the winner of Friday's game will hold the head-to-head tiebreaker if the two teams finish with the same RMAC record, which is what allowed the Mavericks to host the RMAC tournament last season.

Colorado School of Mines plays CMU and Fort Lewis two times each. The Mavericks and Orediggers have already played once (in the RMAC opener on December 1, with CMU winning 86-79), with Mines traveling to Grand Junction on February 16. Mines has won 13 straight games since that loss to the Mavericks. The Orediggers and Fort Lewis play one another on February 2 in Durango and in the final game of the regular season on March 2 in Golden.

Behind the top three, eight teams are within two games of one another, having a record of somewhere between 6-5 and 4-7. That sets up a fascinating fight for those programs down the stretch to finish in the conference's top eight and qualify for the RMAC Tournament.

All About The Ball
Colorado Mesa's shift to an new, up-tempo offense has produced several amazing results. The Mavericks are the top-scoring team in the RMAC at 86.1 points per game and also lead the conference in team field-goal percentage (.491) and offensive rebounds (206, 12.1 per game).

The one thing the Mavericks have struggled to do at times is take care of the basketball. Despite forcing the third-most turnovers in the conference (14.9 per game), the Mavericks have committed more turnovers than any other RMAC team (273, 16.1 per game). The Mavs have had double-digit turnovers in all but one game this season and have recorded 15 or more in 11 of their 17 contests.

Unfortunately for the Mavericks, all Fort Lewis does is force turnovers. The Skyhawks lead the conference and rank 17^th in Division II with 17.53 turnovers forced per game. Fort Lewis plays a frantic style defense that often involves full court pressure. They also take care of the basketball themselves, committing the second-fewest turnovers in the league at 11.5 per game.

The turnover margin in Friday's game will be a key storyline to watch as both teams will try to impose their style of play on their opponents and maximize possession opportunities.

Tale Of The Tape
Colorado Mesa and Fort Lewis have been on a collision course this season since they shared last season's RMAC regular season championship and combined for 12 of 15 first-place votes in this season's preseason RMAC Coaches Poll (eight for CMU, four for Fort Lewis).

Alongside Colorado School of Mines, the two programs have established themselves as the class of the RMAC this season, and both programs will be ranked in the top 10 for the first time in the history of the all-time series. Here's a by-the-numbers look at each program's respective numbers entering Friday's contest:
 

RMAC Rank	Colorado Mesa	Category	Fort Lewis	RMAC Rank
1st	86.1	Scoring Offense	85.7	2nd
5th	72.1	Scoring Defense	69.8	2nd
2nd	+14	Scoring Margin	+15.9	1st
1st	49.1	Field Goal %	48.1	2nd
1st	40.5	Opposing Field Goal %	42.3	3rd
7th	35.5	3-Point %	37.0	2nd
1st	11.7	3-Pointers Per Game	8.1	6th
3rd	30.5	Opposing 3-Point %	36.5	13th
10th	70.7	Free Throw %	74.1	3rd
1st	40.4	Rebounds Per Game	37.6	3rd
1st	18.71	Assists Per Game	11.94	11th
1st	3.94	Blocks Per Game	3.35	3rd
4th	7.76	Steals Per Game	8.59	1st
3rd	254	Turnovers Forced	298	1st
15th	273	Turnovers Committed	195	2nd

Friday's game will be a match-up of the league's top two offenses. The Mavericks allow more points per game than Fort Lewis in part because their up-tempo offense gives themselves and the opponent more possessions, but the Mavs defense is holding opponents to the lowest field-goal percentage in the league.

The Mavericks also have the highest rate of rebounds, assists and blocks in the conference, while Fort Lewis dominates the rest of the league in turnover margin, scoring margin and steals.

In the Polls
Colorado Mesa rose one slot this week to No. 7 in the NABC Coaches Poll. After Friday's opponent, Fort Lewis, rebounded from its first RMAC loss with an undefeated weekend versus Chadron State and Colorado Christian, the Skyhawks moved up four spots to No. 8 in the Coaches Poll, right behind CMU.

The rises from the Mavericks and Skyhawks give the South Central region four of the nation's top eight teams. West Texas A&M earned a No. 1 ranking in the Coaches Poll for the first time in program history while Dallas Baptist held steady at No. 4 overall. The Buffs and Patriots, who are the only two teams to defeat Colorado Mesa this season, play one another on Thursday night.

Colorado School of Mines is ranked No. 14 in the poll to give the RMAC three teams in the top 15. CMU has a 1-2 record against ranked programs, with a win over Mines and losses to WTA&M and DBU. The Mavericks have two games remaining against currently ranked teams – Friday's game against Fort Lewis and a home game against Mines on February 16.

The D2CSC Media Poll has the Mavericks at No. 11, up three spots from last week. The Mavericks are third in the D2CSC Regional Rankings, trailing West Texas A&M (national No. 3) and DBU (national No. 6). Colorado School of Mines is fourth in the regional rankings, with Fort Lewis fifth ahead of Eastern New Mexico, Lubbock Christian, Angelo State, MSU Denver and Cameron.

The Mavericks were picked to win the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in a preseason poll of the conference's head coaches. The Mavericks received eight of a possible 15 first-place votes and finished with 186 points to top the poll. Fort Lewis, who shared the regular season title with CMU and won the RMAC Tournament last year, got four first-place votes and 177 points. Colorado School of Mines received three first-place votes and 169 points while Black Hills State and Chadron State rounded out the top five.

About Fort Lewis
Ranked No. 8 nationally, Fort Lewis is 15-2 with a 10-1 record in the RMAC. The Skyhawks suffered a season-opening loss to Angelo State but ripped off 12 straight victories prior to a 79-70 loss at UCCS back on January 12. Since then, the Skyhawks have been back on track, beating a Chadron State team that took the Mavericks to overtime 88-72 and Colorado Christian 94-62 last weekend.

The Skyhawks have successfully reinvented on the fly, maintaining a high level of play despite losing all five starters from last season. Obi Agbim, Junior Garbrah and Sekou Dembele have made the leap from key reserves on last year's team to entrenched starters while the Skyhawks dipped into the transfer portal to supplement the roster, adding Brayden Carter from Regis, Isaiah Thompson from CSU Pueblo, Amondo Miller, Jr. from CU-Boulder and Malik Whittaker from West Virginia State. The Skyhawks are deep, playing 10 players in all 17 games so far this season.

Agbim is the team's leading scorer and playmaker, averaging 14.7 points and 2.9 assists per game. The junior guard has three 20-point games on the season, including one last weekend against Chadron State that helped him be named last week's RMAC Offensive Player of the Week. Whittaker (11.6 points per game) and Carter (10.9 points per game) also average in double figures for the Skyhawks, with Carter also the team's leading rebounder at 6.3 boards per game.

Garbrah, a guard from Melbourne, Australia, has come on strong in the RMAC season, averaging 11.3 points per game during RMAC play. The senior opened conference play with a pair of 20-point games against Adams State and New Mexico Highlands and also scored 20 points against Chadron last Friday.

Head Coach Bob Pietrack is in his ninth year as the head coach at Fort Lewis, but played for the program from 2000-2004 and then served as an assistant coach up until taking the head job ahead of the 2015 season. Heading into the 2023-24 season, Pietrack has compiled a 160-71 record as a coach with the Skyhawks. During his time in Durango, Pietrack has led Fort Lewis to three RMAC regular season crowns (including the co-championship with CMU last season) and two RMAC Tournament titles, including last season's in Brownson Arena. Pietrack was named the NABC South Central Regional Coach of the Year in 2016 and 2023.

Colorado Mesa leads the all-time rivalry 50-39 over the Skyhawks. The Mavericks have won six of the past seven matchups after losing six in a row from 2016-2019. The Mavs have a 28-14 record at home against the Skyhawks, but lost the most recent matchup in Grand Junction, falling 83-77 in 2022.

Last season, the No. 23-ranked Mavs defeated then-No. 12 Fort Lewis on the road in Durango by a 75-68 score. Trevor Baskin had a 17-point, 15-rebound double-double in that game.  

Coach's Corner
In his five seasons in Grand Junction, Mike DeGeorge has transformed the Mavericks into a perennial national and conference contender, winning two RMAC Coach of the Year awards in the process.

From 2018-19 through 2022-23, DeGeorge has compiled a 112-38 record at the helm of the Mavericks, topping the 20-win plateau in four consecutive seasons. He improved the Mavericks from 11 to 19 wins in his first season and crossed the 20-win barrier in 2019-20, leading CMU to an RMAC Tournament Championship from the No. 4 seed.

The 2020-21 campaign saw the Mavericks start the season with 14 consecutive wins on the way to the RMAC Regular Season and Tournament Championships and finishing the regular season ranked No. 1 in the nation. DeGeorge was named RMAC and NCAA West Region Coach of the Year.

In 2021-22, DeGeorge's team won a program-record 26 games, advancing to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 for the first time in program history, a run that included a win over regional No. 1 seed Lubbock Christian.

The Mavs won a co-RMAC regular season championship in 2022-23, going 19-3 in the RMAC and 25-6 overall while making their fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. The team stepped up in tough environments, going 3-0 on the road against top-15 opponents as DeGeorge nabbed his second RMAC Coach of the Year award.

Prior to CMU, DeGeorge was the head coach at Eureka College in Eureka, Ill. from 2000-04, Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa from 2004-09 and Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn. for eight seasons from 2010-2018. He has over 300 career wins as a head coach.