Women’s Basketball Achieves First Title in 36 Years

This past weekend the Lady Orediggers earned their spot as the #1 seed for the RMAC Shootout and acquired an RMAC title—the first in 36 years.

This achievement began with a 66-52 win on Friday against Western State. After winning this game, the team was tied for first in the RMAC with Saturday’s opponent, CSU-Pueblo. Saturday night, the team beat CSU-Pueblo 63-52 in a climactic, intense game.

“We went 2-0 on the road against Western State and CSU-Pueblo,” said coach Brittany Simpson. “Our win against Pueblo assured us a share of the regular season championship.”

Senior Courtney Martin, who is close to scoring a total of 1,000 points over the span of her college basketball years, has been an integral part to the team’s success this past season and was important to the team’s victories this past weekend.

“We played well together and were able to beat one of the few teams we lost to earlier in the season,” stated Martin.

Being forecasted to be ninth in the RMAC before the season, this is a huge and unanticipated accomplishment for the team.

“We were originally ranked ninth in the RMAC preseason polls and were able to lock down co-champs with our win on Saturday. If we are able to win on Friday this week, we will win it outright,” Martin said.

The team’s only other RMAC championship was achieved 36 years ago in 1980. Overall, the team has a 20-5 record, which is only the fourth time the team has achieved a 20 win season in the history of the Mines girls’ basketball team.

“I’m very proud of my team and how they have grown this season. I think we have been playing very well together recently and I hope it continues,” said Martin.

To win the regular season title outright, the team must win this Friday’s game against Colorado Christian University. This will be another tough game, but the team has proved their ability to win.

“It is going to be a good game. CCU is a very good team and we are going to have to play our best if we are going to claim the position of sole conference champs,” said Martin.

After the game on Friday against CCU, Mines will host a RMAC Shootout quarterfinal on Tuesday. If the team wins that game, they will host semifinals and finals on the following Friday and Saturday (Mar. 4^th and 5^th).