GOLDEN – The No. 11 Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team will begin its three-game road swing to close the regular season this weekend when the squad faces New Mexico Highlands and Western New Mexico in a pair of road contests on Friday and Saturday.
Mines (20-3, 16-3 RMAC) captured its third 20-win season in the past four campaigns with a 2-0 record over the weekend that featured a 73-52 victory over Black Hills State on Friday and a 104-72 win over Chadron State on Saturday at Lockridge Arena to improve to 11-2 at home on the season.
After being ranked No. 11 in the nation in this week's NABC Division II Coaches Poll, Mines has now spent the last eight weeks bouncing back-and-forth between No. 13 and No. 11, starting with a No. 13 billing in the Dec. 31, 2013 version of the poll.
The Orediggers are alone in second place in the RMAC standings with a 16-3 mark in league play, trailing No. 1 Metro State (21-1, 18-0 RMAC) by 2.5 games. The Orediggers have three games remaining in their regular season schedule and the Roadrunners have four games left to go over the final two weekends. Mines is 2.5 games up on UC-Colorado Springs (16-6, 13-5) for second in the standings.
Mines is ranked No. 4 in the initial NCAA South Central Region Rankings.
The squad now boasts four players with over 1,000 career points on the current roster, including senior Brett Green, who has also eclipsed 1,500 career points. Trevor Wages, Brian Muller and Luke Meisch have all gone over 1,000 career points for their careers during the 2013-14 campaign as well.
Wages now has 963 career rebounds and needs just 37 rebounds to become the third player in program history with 1,000 rebounds. He would also become the third player in program history with 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds, joining Joe Butkovich (1968-1972, 1,641 points, 1,042 rebounds) and Jeff Rhodes (1978-1982, 1,252 points, 1,129 rebounds).
NMHU (11-12, 8-11 RMAC) enters Friday's matchup having won its last contest (79-78 over Western State) following a five-game losing streak. Mines defeated NMHU 111-63 on Dec. 7, 2013, in Golden earlier this year.
WNMU (1-21, 1-18 RMAC) enters Friday's matchup against Colorado Christian having lost 15 consecutive contests. Mines defeated the Mustangs 108-69 on Dec. 6, 2013, in Golden.
FULL MEDIA GAME NOTES
