The Colorado Mines women’s basketball team has climbed to the top of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, but it still has some unfinished business.
The Orediggers need only to win Friday night at home against Colorado Christian, or have CSU-Pueblo lose, to claim their first outright RMAC championship.
Coach Brittany Simpson and her team already have done a lot, but without a victory Friday, they could end up as co-champions.
“We don’t want to share a season’s title,” Simpson said. “We want it all our own. We’ve won 18 games in the conference and we want to go finish it. Let’s go out with a bang.”
The Orediggers (20-5, 18-3 RMAC) already have packed a lot of accomplishments into a season. Their guaranteed co-championship is their first finish that high in the conference standings since the 1979-80 season. It has put them in position to play host to the conference tournament as well as contend for a berth in the Division II national tournament.
“It puts a little bit of pressure on Friday’s game,” senior Courtney Martin said. “We’ll go out and do our best like we’ve done all season. We’ll see how playing them (Colorado Christian) goes the second time around. It’s senior night for us, and there’s an advantage playing the game at home.”
Mines won 64-63 in overtime in its first meeting this season with Colorado Christian (18-7, 15-6), which will finish third in the Mountain Division of the RMAC.
Martin is taking the success in her last season in stride. She came to Mines from Chaparral High School in Parker. The 6-foot-2 post player leads the Orediggers in scoring (averaging 11.4 points per game) and rebounding (7.0).
“I’ve never won a championship in basketball before,” Martin said. “This really is great for me, my teammates and coaches. It’s a high point. We knew we hadn’t won anything for a long time. This is a big deal, and I hope we can win it outright.”
Martin looks at the end of her college career as bittersweet.
“It definitely hasn’t been a walk in the park,” Martin said. “But I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I love the environment here and I love to play basketball. I won’t mind not having to practice every day. We’ll see.”
Simpson has a lot more basketball on the agenda.
“To do what we’ve done so far, I wouldn’t have imagined it,” the coach said. “I’ll be honest, I thought we’d be better this year, but I wasn’t sure we’d go this far. We have an amazing group of players, who bought into the program. We stress the importance of defense and rebounding.”
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296, imoss@denverpost.com or @irvmoss
