GOLDEN – The No. 13 Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team will close out its regular season home schedule this weekend when the squad faces Black Hills State and Chadron State on Friday and Saturday, respectively, at Lockridge Arena.
Saturday evening's 7 p.m. contest against the Eagles (10-11, 7-10 RMAC) will serve as Senior Night for the Orediggers (18-3, 14-3 RMAC), who will honor its five seniors Clay Boatwright, Will Carr, Brett Green, Luke Meisch and Trevor Wages. The squad will open the weekend with an 8 p.m. matchup on Friday against the Yellow Jackets (9-12, 7-10 RMAC).
Meisch and junior Brian Muller will look to join the 1,000-point club in front of the home crowd this weekend, as Meisch currently boasts 993 career points and Muller has 992. Green went over 1,500 points in Saturday's win over Regis, becoming the 13th player in program history to reach that milestone.
Wages went over 1,000 points in an early-season win over New Mexico Highlands, which will give Mines four players on its current roster with 1,000 or more career points when Meisch and Muller eventually eclipse the milestone.
Mines is currently third nationally in scoring margin (19.6), fifth in free throws made (464), fifth in field goal percentage (52.2), sixth in rebound margin (10.2), eighth in free throw percentage (77.5), 14th in 3-point defense (30.1), 19th in scoring offense (86.3) and 24th in field goal percentage defense (40.3).
The squad is also first or second in the RMAC in 14 statistical categories as well.
Individually, Wages is currently fourth nationally in field goal percentage (68.4) and 15th in double-doubles (10), while sitting 28th nationally in rebounding (9.4). Freshman Gokul Natesan is 32nd nationally and second in the RMC in steals per game (2.1) and the trio of Muller (89.6), Green (86.7) and Meisch (85.8) is 16th, 38th and 49th nationally in free throw percentage.
Black Hills State enters Friday's contest having won its last matchup (70-60 vs. WSCU) after dropping its three prior matchups. Mines defeated the Yellow Jackets 78-69 in Spearfish, S.D., on Dec. 15 in the first matchup between the two squads this year.
Chadron State enters Friday's contest with Colorado Christian having won three-straight matchups following a three-game losing streak. Mines defeated Chadron State by a score of 86-80 on Dec. 14 in Chadron.
FULL MEDIA GAME NOTES
