RAPID CITY - After a month layoff from the conference schedule, the South Dakota School of Mines and Black Hills State women's basketball teams jump back into conference action this weekend with a two-game road trip to North Dakota.

After two wins at the Sioux Falls Classic last weekend the 10th-ranked Yellow Jackets come into tonight's matchup against Dickinson State (10-4 overall) riding a seven-game winning streak and have an overall record of 13-3.

"Both teams we're playing this weekend are good teams," said Black Hills State head coach Mark Nore. "Dickinson and us are very similar, so it is going come down to the team that makes plays down the stretch. Both places are tough environments to play in, so we're going to have to be sharp and grab the momentum."

Black Hills is led offensively by Katelynn Lamb, who is averaging 13 points per game and Brittany Fuhrman, who contributes 12 points per game. But it will be the defense, led by Tiffany Thomas with 36 steals, which will have its hands full with Dickinson's Kia Herbel, who leads the DAC conference in field goal shooting at 60 percent and is second in scoring at 16.31 points per game.

"I think the one constant we've had has been our defense," said Nore. "I think we'll be able to defend this weekend. On the offensive side, we need to play aggressive, loose and get our post players a lot of touches."

The Yellow Jackets travel to Minot State (9-6) on Saturday at 4 p.m.

The Lady Hardrockers come into the weekend at

6-10 on the season. Mines is trying to end a three-game losing streak after traveling to California where they dropped a pair of games.

"We need to come out and play 40 minutes of good basketball," said Hardrocker head coach Barb Felderman. "The season has been kind of frustrating so far, we've used people stepping into strange positions that haven't played a whole lot, and so we're trying to show some patience."

Mines will battle Minot State tonight at 5:30 p.m. The game will feature two of the DAC's top scorers in Bethany Holyoak, who is averaging

15 points per game, and Minot's Lashay Bagsby, who is leading the conference in scoring at 17 points per game.

The 'Rockers will battle Dickinson State on Saturday at 4 p.m..

Both Black Hills State and Mines are 2-0 in the conference this season after defeating Dakota State and Mayville State on Dec. 5 and 6.