#7/10 Mines (12-1, 6-1) vs. CSU Pueblo (7-6, 3-4) – Friday, 7 p.m. – Golden, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]
#7/10 Mines (12-1, 6-1) vs. New Mexico Highlands (6-8, 4-4) – Saturday, 7 p.m. – Golden, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network]

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KEEPING GOOD GOING
The #7/10 Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team continues Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play this weekend as they return to Lockridge Arena for their first home dates of the new year, taking on CSU Pueblo on Friday night before welcoming New Mexico Highlands Saturday evening.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
The match this weekend will be available free of charge on the RMAC Network and will have live stats through Sidearm.
 
AT THE HELM
Entering his 22nd season in Golden, head coach Pryor Orser is the winningest coach in program history and on Friday November 25, he reached the 400-win mark in his career with an 82-58 win over Kansas Wesleyan. Heading into RMAC play this weekend, his overall record stands at 407-213 and 288-147 in RMAC play, the second-most wins in conference history. Under Orser, Mines has won five RMAC regular-season championships and two RMAC Tournament titles, and qualified for 11 NCAA Tournaments including two Elite Eight trips. 
 
IN THE POLLS
The Orediggers were tabbed to finish third in the RMAC in the preseason poll, receiving 169 points and a first-place vote. Black Hills State garnered 196 points and the remaining 14 first-place votes while Colorado Mesa was picked second, earning 178 points. Fort Lewis (152) and UCCS (138) rounded out the top five in the poll. On the national stage, the Orediggers remained in the Top 10 in both national polls to open the new year, gaining a spot in the NABC Division II Coaches Poll to move up to #7 while checking in at #10 in the D2SIDA Media Poll. Black Hills State remained #3 in both polls as they remained unbeaten on the season, while Fort Lewis remained at #15 in the NABC rankings but rose again to #17 in the media poll.
 
WEEK 7 RECAP
Mines just had one game on tap to return from the holiday break, taking on Colorado Christian Sunday afternoon a day later than originally scheduled due to complications returning to campus for some CCU student-athletes. The Orediggers led for all but 87 seconds of game action and never trailed over the final 34 minutes as they collected a 77-63 win to win their third-straight game. Four players finished the afternoon in double digits, with the trio of Adam Krasovec, Brendan Sullivan and Adam Thistlewood all going for 14 points and combining to shoot 17-28 from the floor and 6-13 from three while Cade Mankle added 13 on 5-8 shooting in his third start of the season.
 
SULLY'S SUPERLATIVES
Brendan Sullivan accumulated seven more honors following last season, including his second consecutive CoSIDA Academic All-America honor, second consecutive RMAC Academic Player of the Year award, RMAC First Team All-Academic for the third straight year as well as NABC Second Team All-District Laurels. He also wrapped up his undergraduate studies at Mines, completing a Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering in May and is now pursuing a Master's in Engineering Technology & Management. Through his first four seasons in a Mines uniform, Sully's earned 25 honors, achievements and accolades; he might want to look into adding a shelf or two in order to have enough room for them all.
 
CLIMBING THE RANKS
Continuing a storyline from last season, Brendan Sullivan continues to make his mark as one of the most prolific scorers in Orediggers history. Through the first 13 games of this season, he now stands at 1,701 career points and is coming off the second 400-point campaign of his career in 2021-22. A better than 52% shooter in his career, Sully has his eyes on continuing his march up the all-time scoring list. Additionally, he's now 11 assists away from 250 for his career and would become the 10th player in program history to hit that milestone. His 139 steals are now fourth all-time in program history, having passed Farris Broussard (2000-05) a few weeks back. He now sets his sights on Raul Varela (1992-96) who ranks third with 206.
 
RARE AIR
Saturday December 3 against Westminster, Golden native Adam Thistlewood eclipsed the 1,000-point mark in his collegiate career and now stands at 1,015 combined points in his time with Colorado State and with Mines. A four-year member of the Rams' program, Thistlewood scored at least 255 points in each of his first three seasons in Fort Collins, including a career-best 297 as a sophomore in the 2019-20 season in which he averaged 10.2 PPG. 13 games into his time as an Orediggers, he's already accounted for 213 points and leads the team in scoring at 16.4 PPG and has ended in double figures in all but one game this season and has already gone for 20 or more four times.
 
SHARING THE ROCK
13 games into the season, Mines leads the RMAC with 218 assists on the season, which comes out to an average of 16.7 per night and ranks inside the top 30 nationally in Division II. Stanford transfer Sam Beskind has been at the head of that effort of distributing the ball on offense, as he is second in the RMAC also among the top 30 in DII with 58 dimes. Adam Thistlewood is second on the club with 30 assists while redshirt freshman Cade Mankle, who has started each of the last three games, has 24. Of the 13 players who have seen game action this season for the Orediggers, 12 have recorded an assist and nine have 10 or more including Grant Pressly, who had six assists on December 18 Western Colorado, finishing just one shy of his career high.

PICKPOCKETS
Mines' success on offense this season has been a big result of what they have been able to do on defense, especially when it comes to steals. The Orediggers are second in the RMAC behind Colorado Mesa with 103 swipes, which breaks down to 7.9 per game. Again, Beskind leads the team and is second in the RMAC with 26, while redshirt freshman Reagan Koch has come off the bench to tally 19, including a career-high five against Western Colorado; he also has a steal in each of nine of the last 10 games games and has 10 in the last five contests. Trent Dykema had three on Sunday against CCU and now has 12 on the season while Brendan Sullivan is also in double-figures with 11, as 11 different players have at least one steal to their ledgers this season.

SCOUTING CSU PUEBLO
The ThunderWolves closed 2022 by going 1-1 at home and snapping a three-game losing streak with a win Saturday over Westminster 70-66 after dropping a 67-60 decision to Colorado Mesa Friday night. After opening the season 4-0, CSUP has gone just 3-6 since. Three players enter the week scoring in double figures, led by Lian Ramiro with 13.3 PPG and 27 assists while shooting .396 from the field. Meekness Payne follows at 12.2 PPG and is the team's top three-point threat, shooting .432 from deep while Makiah Morris rounds out the group with 11.8 PPG and has 20 made treys this season and has 21 steals to lead the club. Isaiah Thompson leads the ThunderWolves and the RMAC in rebounding with 118 and is averaging close to a double-double on the season, scoring 9.8 PPG and pulling down 9.1 RPG while also registering a team-best 21 steals. De'Shaun Cooper (6.8 PPG) leads the team with 13 blocks and is one of two players with 10 or more in that category alongside Elijah Moleon (8.2 PPG). On the year, CSU Pueblo is averaging 76.1 PPG and is +9.7 in scoring margin, shooing .478/.318/.707 while opponents have has shot .421/.317/.725. They average better than 37 rebounds per game and are +6.9 in that department while averaging nearly 13 assists per game. The ThunderWolves are third in the RMAC in both blocked shots with 54 and steals with 101, checking in just behind Mines in the latter.
 
SCOUTING NEW MEXICO HIGHLANDS
The Cowboys also split their final weekend of 2022 at home, knocking off Westminster 77-73 Friday before falling to Colorado Mesa 84-53 on Saturday. They'll take on MSU Denver Friday night before heading up the road to Golden on Saturday. Since RMAC play began, NMHU has not swept a weekend of action, going 1-1 each weekend over the first four weeks of league play after opening the season with a 2-4 start in non-conference play. Dante Moses is the team's leading scorer and lone play in double-figures this season, checking in at 22.2 PPG while also leading the team in rebounds, (87, 6.7 RPG). In his first season in Las Vegas, Moses has scored in double digits in every game so far, going for 30 or more four times, including a 48-point showing on December 17 against South Dakota mines that earned him RMAC Player of the Week honors. Jalen Munn follows with 8.3 PPG and is shooting .406 from three-point land, while Jonathan Ileleji enters the week scoring 8.2 PPG and is one of the team's top free throw shooters at .893. Ezichi Kalu has come off the bench to lead the Cowboys in blocks with 24, tops in the RMAC, while recording 5.5 PPG and 4.4 RPG, with Tyler Rodgers also rankings among the top five in the league in rejections with 15 while scoring 5.4 PPG with 12 assists. Jaylen Domina-Lovato has 37 assists to lead the team and rank among the top 15 in the RMAC in that department. As a team, NHMU is scoring 73.1 PPG and is -3.1 in scoring margin. They are shooting .449/.319/.728 and average 31.4 rebounds per night. An active team on defense, New Mexico Highlands has 86 steals and 60 blocks, which rank sixth and first in the RMAC respectively.
 
CHECKING THE STAT SHEET
Three Orediggers are scoring better than 10 points per night heading into week six of the season, led by Adam Thistlewood's 16.6 PPG as he's also shooting at a .504 clip and pulling down a team-best 6.8 RPG. Brendan Sullivan is also scoring at a clip of 14.3 PPG and shooting .541 with a team-best 28 triples to go with 18 assists and 11 steals. Sam Beskind checks in at 13.2 PPG and leads the team in assists and steals with 55 and 24 respectively, both of which rank second in the RMAC, and is shooting .579 from the floor. Riley Schroeder's 10 blocks lead the team in that category while Reagan Koch has been a key piece off the bench, collecting 19 steals and shooting .512 from the floor and .417 from three while Cade Mankle, who starred early this season off the bench before earning starts last weekend, has dished out 24 dimes while shooting .417 from the field and is coming off a career-high 15 points against BHSU. As a team, Mines is +15.5 in scoring margin and is shooting .498/.394/.767 and is registering 16.8 assists per game to lead the RMAC. The Orediggers are also +3.5 in turnover margin and have 95 steals along with an assist-turnover ratio of 1.5.
 
SERIES HISTORY
CSU Pueblo leads the all-time series with Mines 36-29 but the Orediggers have been gaining ground in a hurry in recent years, having won the last seven meetings, including a sweep of the two matchups last season by scores of 81-61 and 72-65. Mines has won the last three games in Golden and is 16-14 at home all-time. Against New Mexico Highlands, the Orediggers are 46-33 all-time and are currently riding a three-game winning streak, with back-to-back wins at home in the last two matchups in 2022 and 2020. In recent years, it has been all Mines in the series; in the last 20 meetings dating back to the 2010-11 season, the Orediggers are 18-2.
 
LOOKING AHEAD
Following this weekend's home action, Mines will hit the road for their next four games, beginning January 13-14 when they head to Regis and UCCS.
 
Fans can keep up with Mines men's basketball on Twitter and Instagram 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.