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Dec 11, 2021; Colorado Springs, CO, USA; The UCCS Mountain Lions hosted the Colorado School of Mines Orediggers in men’s basketball at Gallogly Events Center. Credit: Isaiah J. Downing
Isaiah J. Downing

PREVIEW | UCCS Travels Across Two States to Take on New Mexico Highlands and South Dakota Mines

1/24/2022 5:53:00 PM

By: Eric Mason - Sports Information Director
This Week's Matchup
UCCS Men's Basketball (12-6, 7-5 RMAC) travels across two states this week for a pair of 7 p.m. games starting with New Mexico Highlands University on Tuesday, Jan. 25 and South Dakota School of Mines on Saturday, Jan. 29.  
 
Game Coverage
Live Stream: https://www.rmacnetwork.com/gomountainlions/
Live Stats at NMHU: https://nmhuathletics.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
Live Stats at SD Mines: https://gorockers.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
 
Last Time Out
  • UCCS registered a perfect 3-0 record last week as the Mountain Lions took down Adams State University, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and Colorado Christian University inside Gallogly Events Center.
  • The Mountain Lions started last week with a dominant 38-point victory over the Grizzlies on Monday with freshman Mac Stodart taking the game over by scoring a game and career high 23 points off an impressive 72.7 percent (8-of-11) from the field and 62.5 percent (5-of-8) from three-points range to help claim the 103-65 victory.
  • On Friday night, UCCS picked up a much-needed conference win over MSU Denver who came in with a 12-3 record and walked out with the loss as the Mountain Lions limited the Roadrunners to their third lowest field-goal percentage of the season at 35.8 to hold on and win, 67-64. A total of 10 different Mountain Lions found their way into the scoring column with Alijah Comithier recording a double-double off a team high 21 points and 12 boards.
  • UCCS closed out their productive week by mounting a 17-point comeback in the second half against CCU to complete the 84-77 win and increase the team's winning streak to three games. Redshirt sophomore Bobby Martin came off the bench to score a season high 14 points with all 14 of those points coming in the second half, including a sharp 3-of-4 from long range.
Awards
  • Comithier garners his first RMAC Offensive Player of the Week honor of the season after helping the Mountain Lions put together three wins over ASU, MSU Denver, and CCU. The Texas native paced UCCS in scoring by averaging 20.3 points per game on the week, including a double-double against the Roadrunners where Comithier went off for 21 points and 12 rebounds to help preserve the 67-64 victory Friday night. Comithier also shot 57.8 percent from the field through three games as he added two steals, 24 points and an impressive 78.6 percent from the field (11-of-14) against the Cougars to close out the Mountain Lions' three-game win streak.
RMAC Records/Standings
  • Jumping up two spots in the conference standings is UCCS men's basketball who now holds a 7-5 RMAC record to claim sole possession of fifth place.
  • No. 12 Regis University drops down to second in the league standings (14-2, 9-1 RMAC) after an 80-86 loss to Colorado Mesa University on Saturday as Black Hills State University surpasses the Rangers to sit atop the RMAC Standings with a 12-4 overall record and 10-1 conference record.
  • CMU remains in third place with a 15-7 overall record and 9-4 RMAC record as MSU Denver (13-4, 7-4 RMAC) stays ahead of UCCS in fourth place.
The Series
  • Since Head Coach Jeff Culver's first season at UCCS in 2012-13, the Mountain Lions have owned a stellar 10-3 record against NMHU with the Cowboys taking the win in the two teams' last meeting on Feb. 15, 2020, 98-86.
  • Culver and the Mountain Lions also hold a winning record over South Dakota School of Mines at 7-5 with the Hardrockers claiming the most recent win from Feb. 26, 2021's game, 84-71.
Scouting New Mexico Highlands
  • The Cowboys (6-9, 1-8 RMAC) have lost their last three games and are currently looking for their first win of the New Year. Last weekend, NMHU suffered a 70-77 loss to CCU on Friday and 73-78 loss to MSU Denver on Saturday, both of which came at home.
  • NMHU is maintaining one of the top offenses in the conference with an 80.8 scoring average as the Cowboys counteract the third ranked scoring offense with the third highest scoring average allowed at 78.9.
  • Defensively, the Cowboys are consistently causing turnovers with the second highest average in the league at 15.7 that's backed by 7.0 steals per game and 4.27 blocks per game which ties for the fifth most and second most in the RMAC, respectively.
  • Individually, senior Desmond Carpenter holds on tight to the 10th best scoring average in the conference with 15.0 points per game. The native of Albuquerque, N.M. has gotten the job done on both sides of the ball for NMHU as Carpenter posts 41 steals for a 2.7 per game average with both ranking as the best in the RMAC.
  • Both Carpenter and fellow senior Marcus Brown are the only two Cowboys to start all 15 games as they each are shooting above 40 percent from the field with field-goal percentages of 41.1 and 46.5 percent, respectively.
  • In 13 games played and started, Andre Adams has been the leader in rebounds for the Cowboys by averaging 5.5 per game as he is also posting 12 blocks on the season.
Scouting South Dakota Mines
  • South Dakota School of Mines (7-11, 5-7 RMAC) heads into this week having snapped a three-game skid last weekend that started with a 65-86 loss to Black Hills State but ended with a 65-62 win over Chadron State College.  
  • The Hardrockers are currently scoring the least number of points per game with an average of 65.4 points per game while they hold the opposition to the sixth least amount of points in the conference at 71.2.
  • From the field, the Hardrockers are shooting an even 43 percent which ranks at the bottom of the conference but they bounce back with the third highest three-point average in the RMAC of 8.7 as the Hardrockers hold a long range percentage of 36.4 percent.  
  • South Dakota Mines has three student-athletes that are currently averaging double-digit points with Brevin Walter, Alejandro Rama, and Kolten Mortensen all posting scoring averages of 15.2, 14.6, and 13.3, respectively.
  • Mortensen carries his 13.3 scoring average off a field-goal percentage of 51.7 that ranks ninth in the RMAC as the junior is also registering the third best rebounding average of 7.8 per game.
  • At a three-point shooting average of 45.9 percent, Rama paces the Hardrockers and also ranks second in the league as he averages 2.5 threes per game for the fourth most in the RMAC
Hot Takes
  • UCCS continues to crash the boards effectively by out-rebounding the opposition 42.2-31.5 with the Mountain Lions holding the advantage in team rebounds over their opponent in 16 of 18 games this season.
  • UCCS' rebound margin of 10.2 ranks third in the nation as they are registering the fifth most rebounds (760) in the country and the 10th highest defensive rebounds per game average (29.61) in Division II.
  • UCCS reclaims the top scoring margin in the conference once again by averaging the second most points in the RMAC (82.8) in combination with allowing 69.1 per game to boast a 10.2 scoring margin.
  • RMAC Offensive Player of the Week Alijah Comithier is scoring 20.8 per game for the third highest average in the RMAC as he's shooting a team-best 53.8 percent from the field and averaging 5.7 rebounds per game.
  • Parker Gaddis and Jon'il Fugett continue to hand out assists by ranking top-10 in the RMAC in assists per game as Gaddis ranks sixth at an average of 3.5 with Fugett ranking 10th at even 3.0. Team wise, UCCS leads the league in assists per game with 16.56.
  • Fugett is also leading the team in steals with 24 total as the junior transfer is averaging 12.2 points per game with a field-goal percentage of 43.4 and team high three-point percentage of 39.5 percent.
  • In the last four games, Mac Stodart is shooting a stellar 52.6 percent from three-point range as he's averaging 12.25 points per game and 2.5 threes a game.
  • Bobby Martin has come off the bench to make one or more three-pointers in four consecutive games.
  • Fugett has notched a steal in 13 of 18 games played and has made more than one three in six straight games.
  • The Mountain Lions are 11-0 when committing 17 or less personal fouls in a game.
  • Head Coach Jeff Culver tallied his 150th win at UCCS against CCU on Saturday.
UCCS Under Head Coach Jeff Culver
  • Jeff Culver, who led UCCS to its first RMAC championship in program history, is in his 10th season as the Head Coach of the University of Colorado Colorado Springs men's basketball program in 2021-22. He's coached the only NBA Draft pick and the only All-Americans in program history in the past eight years.
  • In 10 seasons as head coach, Culver holds a .562 winning percentage with a 150-117 overall record that includes, seven RMAC Tournament appearances, one RMAC Tournament Championship, a 5-6 RMAC Tournament record, two NCAA Tournament appearances, and a 1-2 NCAA Tournament record.
Upcoming Games
  • UCCS men's basketball heads to the Western Slope next week to battle Western Colorado University on Friday, Feb. 4 and Fort Lewis College on Saturday, Feb. 5
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As a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs competes in 16 varsity sports in NCAA Division II intercollegiate athletics. 
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