LAS VEGAS, N.M. – One night after playing an instant classic to begin the weekend, the #23 Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team rolled into the John A. Wilson Complex Saturday night looking to continue their winning ways against New Mexico Highlands. The Orediggers (14-3, 8-1) had to overcome a slow start offensively once again and had to fight for every point against a scrappy Cowboys (7-8, 4-6) club, but ultimately found a way to come out on top for their 10th win in a row with a 69-60 result.
 
The Cowboys won the opening tip, but it took three possessions for them to score the first points of the night as Kyrie Thomas' three-pointer got things going. A 1-2 trip to the line by Alex Romack got Mines on the board before an Ezichi Kalu Dunk made it 5-1. Neither side was particularly crisp on the offensive end as the night got underway with made shots coming in bunches. Markus Pastorcic-Straun reversed a layup at 16:37 but AC Curry hit a three going back the other way for NMHU.
 
Adam Krasovec got going with a three-pointer at 15:44 to make it 8-6 before Romack tied things on a layup the next trip down the floor. After both sides missed jumpers, New Mexico Highlands retook the lead at the free throw line as Eric Sonneberg converted both attempts right before Krasovec hit two of his own to draw back even once more. The two sides exchanged makes as it remained tied before a more than three-and-a-half minute scoring drought saw the action slow.
 
Curry broke things up with a hook shot in the lane and was followed by a long two from Sonneberg to retake the lead 16-12. Sam Beskind's tip-in layup on a missed three was followed by a floater inside from Mankle to even things up again with just over nine minutes in the half. The Cowboys scored twice more in the following minutes to regain the lead as the Orediggers just couldn't find a way to flip the score. A quick 8-2 run by the home team saw their lead swell to 28-20 with just under five minutes before the break. A frenetic sequence as the clock wound under four minutes saw four consecutive combined makes by both teams as a layup from Riley Schroeder closed the gap to 32-26.
 
Beskind and Mankle teamed up once again in the final minute, each connecting on mid-range jumpers to trim the gap back to just two, but two free throws from Kenneth Richardson made it 34-30 heading into the intermission.
 
Coming out of the break, a layup from Krasovec and two free throws from Pastorcic-Straun tied things back up, but New Mexico Highlands answered back with two from the stripe on their next trip to momentarily regain the lead. A three-ball from Beskind around 17:55 gave the Orediggers their first lead and after a 1-2 trip to the line by Curry, a jumper from the big Hungarian Krasovec and a three-point play conversion by the Canadian Pastorcic-Straun made it a 42-37 game with just over 16 minutes to go.
 
Now leading for the first time, it was the Orediggers who had to weather counterpunches thrown by the Cowboys as the next four-plus minutes of game action saw the score tied three times before layups from Schroeder and Alex Romack sandwiched around a single NMHU free throw saw things settle at 50-47 with under nine to play. Another trey from Beskind pushed the lead back to six before Schroeder made it an eight-point lead with a jumper at 57-49 around the six-minute mark.
 
The teams traded free throws for the next two minutes as the margin fluctuated between six and eight before Nathan Hansberry's corner three and Tyler Rodgers' inside jumper quickly trimmed things back down to 61-58. But as was the case for most of the night, the team leading was able to answer as Mankle, Beskind and Majok Deng were perfect down the stretch from the free throw line and helped close out the game on an 8-2 run to pick up the second win of the weekend by a final of 69-60.
 
NOTABLES
-After several near misses earlier in the season, Krasovec recorded his first double-double of the season and third of his career, coming off the bench to score 15 on 6-12 shooting while hauling down 11 rebounds
-Beskind turned in another big night, just missing his second double-double in as many nights with 14 points and nine rebounds along with four assists, a block and a steal while going 4-7 from the field, 2-2 from downtown and 4-4 at the line
-Mankle overcame a slow start for the second night in a row to end with 12 points on 4-9 shooting and 4-4 from the free throw line with four rebounds
-Pastorcic-Straun played 19 minutes off the bench and scored nine points and went a perfect 3-3 from the charity stripe
-Schroeder added eight points and three rebounds to go with two more blocks while shooting 4-7 in the game
-Romack chipped in seven points on 3-6 shooting with five rebounds, two assists and a block
-For the game, the Orediggers went 18-20 from the free throw line and finished +9 in rebounding at 35-26
-Mines turned in a 48% (12-25) shooting effort in the second half while stepping up on defense, holding the Cowboys to 29.6% (8-27) from the field and 22.2% (2-9) from long range over the final 20 minutes
-The current 10-game winning streak for the Orediggers is the longest since the 2020-21 season, in which Mines won 13 straight amidst a schedule plagued with cancelations due to Covid-19
-Head coach Pryor Orser now has 435 career wins and 308 wins in RMAC action, moving closer to still to legendary Fort Lewis and Western Colorado coach Bob Hofman with 443 overall wins and 309 conference wins
 
UP NEXT
Mines will return to Lockridge Arena for their next four dates, beginning next weekend when they play host to Regis on Friday night and UCCS Saturday night.

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.