RAPID CITY - The South Dakota Mines and Black Hills State men's basketball teams get their first taste of Dakota Athletic Conference action this weekend as they face off with Dakota State and Mayville.

Both teams are coming off impressive showings at the US Bank Thanksgiving Classic in Rapid City last weekend in which both teams went a perfect 2-0 downing Haskell University and Peru State.

The Hardrockers continued to shoot the ball well from the outside as guard A.J. Trennepohl knocked down eight 3-pointers against Haskell, but Mines head coach Jason Henry was glad to see the inside game make strides as well.

"We had guys like Carl Johnson and Kyle Turpin getting more comfortable in our system and they are getting more confidence," Henry said. "We still need to keep improving our rebounding because our goal is always to get 55 percent of the rebounds and we haven't done that much this season."

The improved play of Johnson and Turpin as well as Brandon Smith and Brent Cass has forced defenses to bring more double teams, opening things up even more for the guards.

The BHSU men are off to a fast start racing to a 7-1 record by getting key contributions from the five sophomores in their starting lineup.

The Yellow Jackets use a good mix of inside-out play to overcome their opponents as they have five different leaders in five major statistical categories.

Both Dakota State and Mayville have had their early season struggles as the two teams have combined for an

8-10 record coming into the games today and Saturday. However, Mayville's four wins on the season have all come in its last four games.

"Mayville is more athletic than us and they can get up and down the floor, so we will have to be strong in our defensive transition," Henry said. "We cannot overlook anyone because we were in the same position last year where we were young, but capable of beating anyone on a given night."

The Hardrockers face Dakota State today at 7:30 p.m. and then host Mayville at 6 p.m. on Saturday. The Yellow Jackets host Mayville today at 7:30 p.m. and welcome Dakota State at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

Both coaches said playing at home makes it important that their team's sweep their conference foes.