ALAMOSA, Colo.—The 2020-21 regular season will officially commence for the Adams State University Grizzlies Women's Basketball team on Wednesday afternoon as the Grizzlies host CSU-Pueblo. The game is the season-opener for both teams.
Game Information
Teams: Adams State (0-0, 0-0 RMAC) vs CSU-Pueblo (0-0, 0-0 RMAC)
Date: Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Tip-Off: 3:00 p.m.
Location: Alamosa, Colo.
Site: Plachy Hall (2,500)
Series Record: CSU-P leads 57-27
Coaches
ASU:
Jaime Green, 6-48 (3rd Season, ASU); 48-62 (4th Overall)
UCCS: Tommie Johnson, 8-19 (2nd Season)
Media Coverage (Click Links)
Live Video: RMAC Network (
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/adams/)
ASU Radio: KSPK-FM, 104.1 FM (
http://stream.kspk.com:8000/live.mp3)
Live Stats: UCCS Website (
https://asugrizzlies.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary)
Tipping Off
Adams State will finally open up the regular season on Wednesday when host the CSU-Pueblo ThunderWolves in an afternoon showdown in Plachy Hall.
Adams State returns just three letter-winners from last year's squad that finished with a 4-24 record and a 14th place finish in the RMAC.
Adams State will be returning two players who sat out all but one and two games, respectively, in 2019-20 due to injury.
Kaela McClure, who played in just one game will be back, while
Stephanie Ruiz returns to the Grizzly ranks as a leader. Ruiz, who has played in 54 games as a Grizzly, starting 44 of them, averages 11.6 points per game as she is a consistent 37 percent shooter from the field and an equal 33 percent shooter from beyond the arch.
Kassie Schell returns for her junior season. She has played in 36 games for the Grizzlies including 12 in the starting lineup. She averages 2.6 points per game and 2.1 rebounds. Sophomore
Laura Gutierrez will play her second season as a Grizzly. Last season she played in 27 games, starting 20 of those, averaging 8.6 points per game as she was a 28 percent shooter from the field. Also returning for her second season is
Paiton Demps. She played in 27 games last season, 22 of which she started in. She averaged 4.8 points per game and 4.4 rebounds per game.
Adams State got stellar reinforcements this season in Division I transfer
Kaitlyn Bell and junior college transfers Kayla Harris and Haley Eaves and freshman
Elaina Watson.
The Grizzlies were selected to finish 13th in the 2020 RMAC preseason Coaches' poll. ASU received 37 points while Colorado Mesa, the two-time defending RMAC Tournament Champions have been tabbed as the favorite to repeat in the 2020-21 RMAC Women's Basketball poll. The Mavericks received 189 points and eight first-place votes. They finished last year with an overall record of 26-5.
Jaime Green returns for her third year at the helm and brings in assistant coach
Mario Ceatano who moved just a couple of miles north from Northern New Mexico.
About CSU-Pueblo
CSU-Pueblo returns one of their best players in recent history as JaNaiya Davis returns for her junior year. Last season she finished with 136 assists and averaged 16.2 points per game. Last season the Thunderwolves finished 8-19 overall, 13th in the RMAC as they averaged 58.9 points per game. They sat in fifth place in the conference standings for free throw percentage as they hit 72 percent of their shots from the charity stripe.
The ThunderWolves welcomed eight newcomers, two of which are D-I transfers Jazzy Hughes and Aubriana Noti. CSU-Pueblo also returns Danielle Craft and Aubrey Robinson, both of whom redshirted a year ago.
CSU-Pueblo was picked to finish tenth in the RMAC Coaches' Preseason Poll. They picked up 86 points in the poll of 15 coaches.
Series History vs. CSU-Pueblo
Wednesday's match up will be the 85th match up in the storied history between CSU-Pueblo and Adams State. The first game was Feb. 15, 1975. Since then, the ThunderWolves hold a 27-57 advantage over the Grizzlies. In Alamosa, Adams State has a slight advantage, 17-16. In Pueblo, the ThunderWolves lead the series 10-31.
The two teams have only meet once on a neutral court and that was in 1993 when the two teams met in Abilene, Texas. The ThunderWolves won that game. The two teams have met three times in the post season, with Adams State winning the first two games.
CSU-Pueblo holds the longest winning streak at 16 games. That streak is the current winning streak the ThunderWolves is on as they have won every contest since Dec. 2, 2011, including their lone game last season (Dec. 6, 2019), 64-50.
Adams State's longest winning streak in the series is 15 games and occurred from Feb. 20, 1979-Jan. 24, 1985.
Broadcast Information
Saturday's season-opener vs. CSU-Pueblo will be broadcast live on the RMAC Network (
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/adams/) and will be produced by ASU. Since spectators will not be allowed to attend the game in person, fans can tune in and follow along with live stats (
https://asugrizzlies.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary).
In addition, KSPK-FM will once again serve as the official radio station of Adams State Athletics. Brian Loch will call Wednesday's action for Adams State.
Fans can access the game online (http://stream.kspk.com:8000/live.mp3) or on the radio dial KSPK can be heard on 100.3 in Colorado Springs, Alamosa and the San Luis Valley, 104.1 in South Fork and Trinidad, and 102.3 in Pueblo and Walsenburg.
Up Next
The home slate is set to continue on Saturday, Dec. 12 and Friday, Dec. 18 when they host South Dakota Mines and Colorado Mesa University, respectively. Saturday's game is scheduled to start at 3:00 p.m. The Grizzlies are also scheduled to make up their game against UCCS on Monday, Dec. 14. The game at the Gollogy Events Center is set to tip off at 5:30 p.m.
Due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 in the San Luis Valley, all Adams State University home games in 2020 will be played without spectators. ASU Athletics will continuously re-evaluate the policy as local and state guidelines change.
