GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.  The 2025 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference women's basketball tournament continues Friday evening with a pair of semifinal games, the Mountaineers scheduled to play the University of Colorado Colorado Springs in the second of those two contests.

The second seed in the tournament, Western advanced out of the quarterfinal round with a 67-51 home win over Regis University on March 4, while the sixth-seeded Mountain Lions hit a 3-pointer with eight seconds remaining to upset host and third seed Adams State, 63-60.

The semifinals and the championship game on Saturday will be played at Brownson Arena, the home court of top-seeded Colorado Mesa University. The Mavericks will square off against fourth-seed Black Hills State Friday's opening semifinal.

THE HISTORY
UCCS holds a 33-19 advantage in the series history, which began with a January 7 game in 1990. It has won the last four meetings, including a 54-45 home win this season over Western on Jan. 30.

WESTERN COLORADO HEADING INTO THE GAME | LEADERS & STATS

• The Mountaineers (21-7) roll into the semifinals after their 16-point quarterfinal win over the visiting Rangers. An 11-0 run in the first quarter set the tone for Western, which led 20-10 after the first quarter, 31-17 at the half, and by a 19-point margin after three quarters.
• Western continues to lead the RMAC in rebounding and points allowed, those statistics echoed in the win over Regis. The Mountaineers average 40.5 rebounds per game and have a +8.9 rebounding margin over opponents, while limiting opponents to a league-low 56.2 PPG.
• The final rebounding numbers against Regis were 48-33 in favor of Western, and it surrendered even fewer points to the Rangers than its season average.
• Rachel Cockman registered her seventh double-double of the season in the victory, leading Western with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
• Ivey Schmidt and Cockman enter the game against UCCS as Western's leading point scorers and rebounders. Schmidt leads in the scoring category with a 13.3 PPG mark with Cockman nearly equal at 12.7 PPG.
• Cockman leads in rebounding at 7.4 RPG, Schmidt is next at 5.8 RPG, and Brooklyn Seymour chips in with an average of 5.1 per game.
• The long-range points in the offensive end come from the duo of Jayde Tschritter and Jayda Maves. Tschritter has knocked down a total of 50 3-pointers and Maves has hit 46 triples across the year.
• Schmidt has dished out a team-high 72 assists, but Seymour is also a capable distributor, doling out 41 assists this season.
• The last time Western played in an RMAC semifinal game was in the 2020-21 season, and the most recent time in which the Mountaineers advanced to the conference championship game was at the end of the 2011-12 campaign when the tournament was dubbed the RMAC Shootout.
• The Mountaineer program's only RMAC tournament championship was back in 1979 when the tournament was a single game, East Division leader versus the West Division leader contest. Western defeated CSU Pueblo, 64-52, for its only RMAC tournament title.

UCCS HEADING INTO THE GAME | LEADERS & STATS

• The Mountain Lions entered the quarterfinals as the sixth seed, playing at fifth-seeded Adam State. The host Grizzlies pulled even, 60-60, with a 3-pointer with 55 seconds left in the game. UCCS turned the ball over on their ensuing possession but a missed 3-pointer by Adams State put the ball back in the Mountain Lions' hands.
• UCCS came out of the immediately-called timeout with 28 seconds showing on the clock, and allowed the clock to wind until Gia Bradley took her winning shot from behind the arc with eight seconds remaining. The Grizzlies had a chance to tie but missed a 3-pointer in the final seconds.
• The Mountain Lions (17-11) entered the RMAC tournament after an 86-69 loss to Regis, the opponent Western defeated by 16 points in the opening round.
• Prior to that loss UCCS had won two in a row, including a 75-72 victory over New Mexico Highlands, which made the tournament as the No. 8 seed.
• Over the back half of the season, UCCS has been playing close to their opponents, whether in a win or a loss. Most of its last 15 games have been decided by six points or less.
• The Mountain Lions average 65.4 PPG with a +1.6 scoring margin, and are led by Amyah Moore Allen's 19.0 PPG and Maison White's 12.4 PPG.
• White is the team's leading rebounder averaging 10.7 per game for a double-double season average. As a team, UCCS is coming away with 35.7 RPG and posts a minus-1.6 rebounding margin.
• The hero of the Adams State game, Bradley, leads the team with 37 made 3-pointers, but Breelyn Robinson (35) and Ellie Reynolds (26) have also proved dangerous from behind the arc.
• The offense runs through Moore Allen, who leads with 64 assists, while Reynolds has also been key, totaling 49 assists for the season.

THE LAST TIME THEY MET

• It was a barnburner for three and a half quarters back on Jan. 30 at UCCS' Gallogly Event Center.
• Western led 9-8 after one quarter, and the Mountain Lions led by just a point, 18-17, entering the halftime break.
• The advantage flipped back to Western after three, 32-31, and halfway through the fourth the Mountain Lions' lead was by the slimmest of margins, 43-42.
• The Mountaineers, however, would not sink another basket from the floor over the remaining 4:05, getting points from just three successful free throws as UCCS managed to pull away for the nine-point win.
• Western finished with one of its lowest shooting percentages of the season, just 26 percent. But over their final nine games the Mountaineers have shot over 40% eight times and in that one other game, shot 33% in a loss at Colorado Mesa.

ALL-RMAC PLAYERS IN THE GAME
Friday's matchup will include five players who were listed on Thursday morning's All-RMAC Teams release. Western's Cockman and Schmidt and UCCS' Moore Allen were voted first-team selections; White from UCCS was a second-team selection; and the Mountaineers' Maves earned inclusion on the Honorable Mention list.

UP NEXT
The winners of Friday's semifinal games square off for the RMAC title at 6 p.m. in Brownson Arena on Saturday.