GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Back on the road Friday night for the start of Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action, the #10/11 Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team used a hot-shooting balanced offensive attack and turned in one of their best defensive outing of the season as they defeated #RV Colorado Mesa at Brownson Arena 74-62.
 
The Orediggers (7-0, 1-0) got contributions from nine different players, including 17-point showings from both Sam Beskind and Adam Thistlewood, and shot better than 56% from the field in the game while holding the Mavericks (5-2, 0-1) to just 30.4% shooting and 21.7% from beyond the arc as they won their seventh straight game to open the new season.
 
It was a bit of a pedestrian start to the evening as it took nearly 90 seconds for the first points of the night to fall the way of Mines on a Riley Schroeder jumper before CMU briefly jumped ahead by scoring five straight points to make it 5-4. It was just an 8-5 game following a trey from Beskind before the first media timeout of the night at 14:49 and only 10-10 at the halfway point of the period before the pace picked up over the final 10 minutes.
 
The Orediggers and Mavericks traded baskets as CMU never allowed Mines to pull away by more than five over the following minutes until a Thistlewood triple with 7:28 left made it 22-15. The lead briefly jumped to double-digits at 26-15 on a jumper from Trent Dykema before Colorado Mesa closed back to within seven at 26-19 with just under five to play on a Trevor Baskin dunk.
 
Back-to-back threes from Thistlewood along with a jumper from Beskind made it a 15-point lead for Mines at 34-19 as despite an attempt from CMU to close the gap, they were able to carry that lead into the break to lead 39-24 after 20 minutes.
 
The Mavericks did come out strong to begin the second half, going on a 10-2 run to get back to within seven at 41-34 but a trey from Dykema pushed the lead back to double digits for good with 15:39 to play at 44-34. Over the final 14 minutes of the night, Mines' advantage never dropped below 12 as they were able to keep the Mavericks at arm's length.
 
A 2-2 trip to the stripe by Kai Barr with 7:29 to play made it a 20-point lead at 67-47 and that lead grew to as high as 26 following a Thistlewood jam with 4:10 left to make it 73-47. Colorado Mesa was able to get the deficit back below 20 on a pair of Owen Koonce free throws in the final 90 seconds and despite ending the game on a 15-2 run, just ran out of time to try and rally as Mines opened RMAC play with a 74-62 win.
 
NOTABLES
-Thistlewood has now scored in double-figures in each of the last four games and six of seven to begin his Mines career
-Beskind registered his second-highest scoring output of the season and finished in double-digits for the fifth time to open the season while dishing out a season-high seven assists
-Dykema and Schroeder each finished with eight points and combined for five rebounds and three assists
-The 30.4% field goal percentage Mines held CMU to is the lowest opponent field goal percentage of the season
-The nine different players who scored for Mines are the second-most in a game this season when 12 players scored in the season opener against St. Mary's (TX)

LOOKING AHEAD
The Orediggers continue their westward trip this weekend when they head to Salt Lake City Saturday to take on Westminster at 7 p.m.
 
Fans can keep up with Mines men's basketball on Twitter at @minesmbb. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.