SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Looking to extend their winning streak to three games Saturday, the Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team was back at Bill Greehey Arena for action against the host of this weekend's regional crossover St. Mary's (TX). Unfortunately for the Orediggers (2-2) a double-digit deficit in turnover margin proved to be too much to overcome, as the Rattlers (2-0) came away with the ## win.
For the fourth time this season,
Majok Deng started the scoring for Mines as he drilled back-to-back three-pointers sandwiched around a jumper from St. Mary's to take the early 6-2 lead. The teams matched each other basket for basket over the opening five or so minutes until an 11-0 run by the Rattlers saw them take the lead and extend it to 18-10 with 9:08 to play.
Grant Pressly broke things up with a driving layup cut it to a six-point gap, but St. Mary's maintained at least a five-point cushion until
Riley Schroeder connected on his second three-pointer of the half to cut it to 24-21 with 4:53 to play. Quickly the Rattler pushed the lead back to seven following a turnaround jumper from Edward Manuel with 4:03 as the margin fluctuated between five and seven points for the remainder of the period as
Sam Beskind,
Reagan Koch and
Dom Girish all scored to keep things close. Two free throws from Deng in the final minute made it a 34-29 game heading into the break, as Mines missed a chance to whittle it down further on a missed trey but made up for it as they didn't allow St. Mary's a chance to add on once they got the ball back with six second left in the half.
St. Mary's scored seven of the first nine to open the second half as they pushed their lead to 41-31, but Beskind and Deng weren't about to let things get away that quickly as the duo cut it back to a four-point game at 41-37 with a quick six-point surge.
Markus Pastorcic-Straun came off the bench and picked up right where he left off Friday, doing his part to keep the Orediggers within striking distance with back-to-back makes around the 15-minute mark.
The Rattlers' lead swelled to as much as 15 with 10 minutes to play following a three from Micah Jones, but never dropped below 10 until there was less than six minutes left in the game.
Grant Pressly scored on a coast-to-coast layup before Schroeder knocked down a pair from the charity stripe to make it 70-63 with 5:23 to go.
St. Mary's countered in the following minutes and pushed the lead back to 10 and despite a late three from Schroeder and a jumper by Beskind, Mines was unable to close within less than seven in the final three minutes as the Rattlers managed to stave off any ambitions of a late rally to win by a score of 87-77
NOTABLES
-Deng finished in double-digits for the fourth game this season, ending with 17 points and adding a season-best five rebounds
-Schroeder added 16 points and five boards, scoring in double-digits for the second game in a row; he finished two points shy of his career-best mark of 18 while logging 39 minutes to set a new career-high
-Beskind went for 15, marking his third double-figure scoring game of the season and went 5-10 from the floor and 4-4 from the line with seven boards and four dimes
-Pastorcic-Straun came off the bench and dropped double-digits for the second game in a row, going for 14 on 4-7 from the field and 6-10 from the stripe with two rebounds and two assists
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Dom Girish made his second appearance of the year and four points in three minutes while also collecting his first career rebound
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Jonathan Moore scored the first three points of his career with a dunk and a free throw in the game
-In all, nine different players scored for Mines in the game
-The Rattlers forced 16 Oredigger turnovers in the game and scored 22 points off them
UP NEXT
The Orediggers will conclude their season-opening five-game road trip with a trip to Colorado Springs next Saturday for a non-conference bout against UCCS on Saturday 18 at 3 p.m. before making their home debut Monday November 20 at 5 p.m. against Williams Baptist at Lockridge Arena.
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.
