DENVER, Colo. – The #11-ranked Colorado School of Mines Women's Basketball team opened the 2021-22 season with an 80-54 win against St. Mary's in the conference crossover at Regis Field House.
 
Ashley Steffeck was the star of the show with a 20-point, 10-rebound double-double which led all players in the game. Steffeck also notched five steals and two assists. Quincey Baum's 11 points and Josephine Howery's 10 made it a trio of Oredigger, double-digit scorers. Additionally, Howery led all players with four assists. Defensively, Sammy Van Sickle provided a spark with eight rebounds, three steals and one block to go along with four points.
 
The overall foundation of the win for Mines (1-0) came from the Orediggers forcing St. Mary's (0-1) to commit 31 turnovers. Oredigger ball security complimented the defense as they only coughed up eight turnovers of their own. Overall, the Rattlers did produce a shooting percentage over 37 percent while Mines only shot 33 percent from the field. St. Mary's was also better from long range on discrepancy of 35 percent to 18 percent. However, the Orediggers only missed four free throws in 24 attempts while the Texans missed eight on 24 attempts.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Friday evening found Mines playing its first game against a non-RMAC opponent for the first time in 720 days. In the end, the RMAC's defending champions had little trouble extracting the venom and defanging their opponent from the Lone Star Conference as evidenced by one tie and one lead change over the course of 40 minutes.
 
As the home team on the scoreboard, the Orediggers set the tone with 25 points in the first quarter while limiting the Rattlers of St. Mary's to just nine points. Steffeck accounted for seven of the points and Mines was a perfect 6-for-6 at the charity stripe. While, the visitors on the scoreboard did produce 20 points in a big second quarter, Baum nailed a three-pointer at the buzzer and the Orediggers owned the third period as well. Another wide margin of 21-8 was supplemented by a 7-0 run to end the period. After that, Mines engaged cruise control and maintained its lead all the way to the final buzzer.
 
NOTABLES
- Friday marked Mines' first-ever win against St. Mary's. The Orediggers are now 1-2 in the all-time series.
- The win over the Rattlers also gave Mines back-to-back, season-opening victories and improved Head Coach Brittany Simpson to 5-5 in season debuts.
- Steffeck's 20 points were one shy of her career best of 21 at Black Hills State last January.
- Steffeck also notched the third double-double of her career. Her previous two featured 15 points and 10 steals in last season's opener followed by 11 points and 15 rebounds in January against CSU Pueblo.
- Baum and Howery also produced superlative nights as sophomores with their double-digit production. Baum's previous best was three points at Fort Lewis and Howery had six points six against Colorado Christian.
- Howery's four assists were also a single-game career high.
- Liz Holter surpassed 400 combined points in an Oredigger uniform. She also scored 171 while playing at NCAA Division I Incarnate Word.
- Van Sickle's four points on Friday night put her over 500 points in less than four seasons with Mines.
- Coach Simpson is 150-101 in her 10th season as head coach.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
Mines closes the conference crossover on Saturday against St. Edward's at 6 p.m. inside Regis Field House in Denver. Masks are required for all fans regardless of vaccination status. Live stats and video on the RMAC Network will be offered at www.minesathletics.com.
 
Fans can keep up with Mines women's basketball on Twitter and Instagram at @MinesWBB. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.