By: Con Marshall, CSC Sports Information
Hoping for better fate during the New Year, the Chadron State College basketball teams will hit the road again this weekend. The Eagles will visit Adams State in Alamosa, Colo., on Friday night and venture over Wolf Creek Pass to Durango to play Fort Lewis on Saturday night. Both double-headers will begin at 5:30, and both will be broadcast on DOuble Q Country, 97.5 & 105.9 FM.
Both CSC teams struggled during the 2019 portion of the season while playing mostly on the road. The women are 3-11 and the men 2-9 overall. Both are 1-4 in RMAC contests.
"We're still going to be on the road a lot in January, and road wins are tough to come by in the RMAC," said CSC Men's Coach Houston Reed. "We've got to get some wins in January if we're going to meet our goals (making the playoffs.). We've cut down on turnovers and rebounded better, but we've had some other breakdowns. We've got to execute better and complete our plays."
Reed said his team also needs to tighten its 3-point defense. In the final three games of 2019, the opponents made 37 of 68 shots from behind the arc for 54.4 percent.
Although they lost, the CSC women played one of their best offensive games against Metro State just before Christmas, when they made 11 of 22 treys and 14 of 17 free throws and outrebounded the Roadrunners 39-34.
Both Adams State teams also have struggled so far. Both are 3-8 overall and 1-4 in the conference. The Fort Lewis teams have fared much better. The women are 8-2 for the season and 4-1 in the conference. The men are 9-2 and 3-2.
Both Grizzly quintets got their conference win while hosting New Mexico Highlands. The women won 57-45 and the men 75-74. The losses have been to CSU-Pueblo, Black Hills State, South Dakota Mines and Fort Lewis.
The Adams State women are led in scoring by 5-8 senior Zakiya Beckles at 9.9 points a game while the men's leaders are 6-5 junior Kaelin Crane at 16.3 and 6-foot senior Juwan Green at 13.5.
Two tall players with the first name of Jordan are leading the Fort Lewis women with scoring averages barely below 11 points and rebounding averages above 7.0. They are Jordan Carter, a 6-1 junior, and Jordan Vasquez, a 6-0 freshman. Black Hills State handed the Lady Skyhawks a 74-66 setback for their only conference loss.
The Skyhawks' men are paced by 6-9 junior Riley Farris at 23.8 points a game and freshman guard Akuel Kot, who is scoring at a 15.5 clip. Their conference losses have been to Highlands and Black Hills.
The bus rides will continue for the Eagles through January. After the trip to southwestern Colorado this weekend, the Eagles will be at home Jan. 10 and 11 to meet the two RMAC teams from Utah, but will be on the road again for four games the following two weekends.
That means the CSC teams will have played four conference games at home and nine on the road through December and January 24. Things will turn around beginning on Jan. 31. Seven of the final nine games will be in the Chicoine Center.