GUNNISON, Colo. – Back on the court for the fourth and final game of their pre-holiday road trip, the Colorado School of Mines men's basketball had their sights set on their fifth straight win Saturday afternoon against Western Colorado. The Orediggers ## got contributions from up and down the roster in the contest with seven different players scoring seven or more points, as they knocked off the Mountaineers 79-61.
 
Two free throws from Majok Deng on a second-chance shot attempt put Mines on the board first, but Western Colorado hung around in the opening minutes and was able to briefly take the lead 8-7 on a pair of free throws from Kade Juelfs at the 16:35 mark. Nearly 45 seconds of game time later after five combined missed shot attempts, Deng buried a three-ball from Cade Mankle to retake the lead 10-8 as Mines opened it up in the minutes that followed.
 
A 6-0 run that saw Marcus Pastorcic-Straun and Adam Krasovec score off the bench and capped with a Mankle three made it 16-8 at the under-twelve media timeout. WCU did get back within four coming out of the break, but back-to-back treys from Reagan Koch quickly pushed the lead to 22-12. A furious sequence of five-straight combined makes by both teams included buckets from Pastorcic-Straun, Koch and Dassie and ended with the Orediggers up 30-17 with 7:37 to play.
 
Again coming out of the timeout, the Mountaineers looked to rally and briefly cut the lead back to nine, but Mines kept their foot on the gas for the final six minutes of the period, closing out the first 20 minutes on a 12-4 run to take a 44-26 lead to the locker room.
 
The second half got off to a bit of a sluggish start with just seven total points scored in the opening three minutes. Things started to pick up a bit shortly thereafter as Schroeder and Sam Beskind both scored with a bucket from Jamel Hollins sandwiched in the middle. Adam Krasovec made it a 20-point lead for the first time with 13:06 left on a layup inside from Beskind to kickstart a quick 7-0 run that pushed the advantage to 25 on a three-ball from Mankle along with a layup from Pastorcic-Straun to make it 58-33.
 
Western Colorado then scored the next 10 of the next 12 points to close back within 16 at 60-44 on a three from Tyler Halligan with 8:30 left. Juani Dassie was fouled on a three-point attempt moments later and turned in a 3-3 trip from the stripe and hit his second three of the afternoon following a layup by Alex Romack as part of an 8-0 run that made it a 24-point game at 68-44 with a little over seven minutes remaining.
 
The Mines lead never dipped below 15 for the remainder of the action, as both teams empty their benches to play out the stretch. Caleb Clark closed out the scoring for Mines with two free throws in the final two minutes while WCU got one in the final minute from Christian Still, but it did little to affect the outcome as Mines secured the 78-61 win to run their winning streak to five games.
 
NOTABLES
-Mankle led the way scoring with 15 points and was two rebounds shy of a double-double with eight while going 6-10 from the field and 2-3 from three
-Schroeder went for 12 points on 5-9 shooting with four boards and two blocks
-Dassie, Deng and Koch all finished with nine points with Dassie turning in a perfect day, going 2-2 from deep and 3-3 from the line while Koch was 3-3 from beyond the arc
-Romack added seven points and hauled in seven more rebounds
-Pastorcic-Straun came off the bench for seven points with three rebounds and four assists
-For the game, the Orediggers had 41 rebounds, 16 assists and four blocks while shooting 51.9% (28-54) from the floor while holding WCU to 37.9% (22-58) shooting and just 26.1% (6-23) from long rang
-Head coach Pryor Orser now has 305 career wins in conference play during his 22-plus seasons at Mines, now just five shy of tying former Western Colorado and Fort Lewis legend Bob Hofman's mark of 309
 
UP NEXT
Mines will be off for the next two weeks before resuming play with a non-conference contest against Northern New Mexico on December 31 at 3 p.m. at Lockridge Arena.

Fans can keep up with Mines men's basketball on X and Instagram at @minesmbb. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, X and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.