Pack needs weekend wins to re-assert itself as conference power

By Anthony Sandstrom

Pack needs weekend wins to re-assert itself as conference power

Having high expectations hasn't been an issue for the ThunderWolves' women's basketball team this season. If possible, the ThunderWolves, which were picked to win the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Western Division for the second straight season and improve upon last season's 17-10 mark, had even higher expectations for itself.

After a 6-2 start, but a 1-1 opening in RMAC play, the ThunderWolves go into this weekend's games with Colorado Christian and Metro State hoping to show the world - and themselves - that they are a force to be reckoned with in the RMAC.

After a 5-0 start, the second best start in school history, the ThunderWolves have been woefully inconsistent since, losing two of the last three. The Pack didn't lose to slouches - an 87-78 loss to then-19th-ranked Augustana (S.D.) and an 85-76 loss to conference-favorite Regis - but the feeling among the ThunderWolves is that their own inconsistency is what kept them from both wins, leaving them with something to prove this weekend.

"We've said all season that you win championships on the road and lose them at home," ThunderWolves' head coach Kip Drown said. "We need to come home, protect our turf, and improve in the standings. We're in third place now, and we don't want to fall any lower than that."

However, their opponents this weekend, Colorado Christian (meeting Thursday at Pueblo Central HS) and Metro State (which comes to town Saturday to the Colorado State Fair Events Center), also come in with chips on their shoulders.

Both teams enter this weekend with a 1-1 conference record, as well, and are looking to show that they belong in the RMAC's upper echelon. Christian, coming off a woeful 7-20 season last year, is already 4-7 and trying to make a play to become one of the top squads in the conference.

"Christian keeps getting better and better," Drown said. "Last year, we won by five at their place, but it was a real struggle. They've beat teams like Kearney last year and Mesa State this year, and they've shown they can beat anybody in the conference."

Metro State, however, is in much the same boat as the ThunderWolves. Like CSU-Pueblo, Metro State was also considered among the favorites to win the conference, coming off of a 24-7 season last year, which featured a win over the ThunderWolves in the conference semifinals. But a 4-4 start and a 1-1 mark in conference play has left many outsiders stratching their heads, and Metro could think of no better way to right their ship than to knock off the ThunderWolves, still considered one of the top teams in the RMAC.

"They are a program that is used to winning," Drown said. "We expect then to come in and battle us. We know their personnel well, and they have a lot of the same players that they had when they beat us in the conference semifinals, and it will be a great game."

If the Pack is going to rise to the level it aspires, they will have to work on their rebounding and turnovers. The ThunderWolves had given up 20-plus turnovers in its last two games, and looked very ordinary because of it. The ThunderWolves had also been out-rebounded in each of its last three games, and Drown said it is no coincidence that the Pack lost two of those three games.

"Rebounding has been our biggest Achille's heel this season," Drown said. "That, combined with reducing turnovers has been the two biggest areas we have worked on and will be areas that we continue to work on."

The ThunderWolves' games both take place at 6 p.m. Thursday and Saturday