LAS VEGAS, Nev. – After being dealt just their second loss of the season Thursday night, the #10/11 Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team rebounded in a big way Friday night against Angelo State. Riley Schroeder was the leading man as the Orediggers (9-2) led from start to finish and shot better than 40% from the floor and from downtown while dominating the glass and taking care of the ball, as the Rams (7-4) had no answer all night long in a 71-54 win.
 
Schroeder kicked the night off with a three-pointer and after Majok Deng and Jalen Gilmore traded layups, the fifth-year man out of California connected from three again at 16:15 to make it 8-2 Mines to make it three games in a row with a strong offensive start.
 
Caleb Clark joined the three party a few minutes later as he made it 11-2 at 14:38 before Shemar Smith scored the second basket of the night for Angelo State on the next possession. The lead hovered between six and nine for the next four minutes until Schroeder flushed another trey to make it a 20-10 game with a little over 10 minutes left in the half.
 
The Rams battled back and closed to within four thanks to consecutive three balls from Kaden Evans that made it 22-18 at the 6:46 mark, but two more treys from Schroeder around an ASU free throw quickly ran the lead back to nine at 28-19 just 76 seconds later. Cade Mankle scored four in a row with a second chance jumper off a missed free throw before converting a pair at the stripe to make it 32-21 following the final media timeout of the half.
 
Markus Pastorcic-Straun, coming off a career night Thursday, scored the next six for the Orediggers on his own down the stretch as Denim Dawson's layup with five seconds left saw the half end on a 10-2 Mines run to make it 38-23 after 20 minutes.
 
Mankle and Deng combined to score seven of the first nine points of the second half as the action resumed to make it a 19-point three minutes into play. Alex Romack joined the party by scoring the next three including a dunk from Adam Krasovec in his second game back from injury before two more buckets from Mankle and Pastorcic-Straun capped off the 12-2 run to double up the Rams at 52-26 with 13:18 on the clock.
 
The lead peaked at 29 with a little over nine minutes left in regulation on the final three of the night by Schroeder to make it 59-30. To their credit, the Rams ended the night as best the could, closing the deficit to below 20 with 3:01 to play. Juani Dassie and Mankle each connected from beyond the arc down the stretch while Derek Lamb cleaned up a missed shot in the final minute to become the ninth player in the scoring column for the Orediggers. A few late field goals from ASU in the closing seconds were purely for the stat sheet as the outcome was already in hand with Mines closing out the calendar with a 71-54 victory.
 
NOTABLES
-Schroeder ended the night with 20 points on 6-7 shooting from the floor, all from long range, while going 2-2 at the line and adding three boards, two dimes and a block
-Pastorcic-Straun followed up his career night with 14 off the bench with eight of those coming at the charity stripe along with four assists and three rebounds
-Mankle ended the night with 11 points on 4-8 shooting for his second double-digit scoring performance of the season
-Romack added nine pints and four rebounds on 4-7 shooting
-Lamb scored for the third time in his last four games in the closing moments
-The Orediggers registered 21 assists on 24 made field goals in the game
-Mines outrebounded ASU 35-25 and turned the ball over just six times while forcing nine by the Rams, resulting in 11 points off turnovers
-Defensively the Orediggers held Angelo State to just 7-23 (30.4%) from three in the game
 
UP NEXT
Mines has closed the book on the 2024 calendar year and will resume play on January 4, 2025 at Lockridge Arena in their final non-conference game of the season against Northern New Mexico at 3 p.m.

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.