CHADRON, Neb. – A night after having their game postponed due to a shattered backboard, the #21/22 Colorado School of Mines men's basketball officially got their weekend underway Saturday night at the Chicoine Center in their lone meeting of the regular season with Chadron State. The Orediggers (21-6, 15-4) led for nearly the entirety of the evening against the Eagles (11-15, 8-12), as Majok Deng penned his name into the Mines record book and head coach Pryor Orser became the winningest coach in the history of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference with a 74-56 win.
 
Following a few missed field goals and a turnover, Mines got the first tally of the night on a pull-up jumper from the elbow by Majok Deng. His make was followed about a minute later by a layup inside from Alex Romack before Chadron State's Josh Robinson scored the first points for the Eagles on a putback jumper off a missed three. Sam Beskind capped off that sequence of three makes in four tries with a jumper of his own before Deng buried a step-back three-pointer from the far side wing to make it 9-2 Mines in the first five minutes.
 
After the teams exchanged a pair of free throws, CSC went on an 8-2 run from 12:02 to 10:12 to take the lead 14-13 on a John Jenkins alley-oop dunk, but the lead was short-lived as Mines answered right back with layups from Adam Krasovec and Markus Pastorcic-Straun to make it 17-14 with 9:15 in the period.
 
After near back-to-back media timeouts, Deng hit another mid-range jumper at 7:42 to make it a five-point lead that ended up being the last field goal until nearly the four-minute mark when Krasovec drilled one to make it 21-15. A three-point play by Bryce Latimer allowed the Eagles to close to within three at 21-18 with just over 3:30 to play, but the Orediggers ended the half on a 14-5 run over the final three minutes, capped up with a step-back three from the wing by Beskind that was nearly identical to Deng's from earlier in the half in every sense.
 
Riley Schroeder and Reagan Koch added field goals of their own during the run, but it was Deng who highlighted the festivities first with a dunk off a steal by Pastorcic-Straun before beating the buzzer with 3.3 seconds left in the half with a 45-foot heave from just inside half court and finding nothing but nylon to make it 35-23 Mines after 20 minutes.
 
As play resumed in the second half, the Orediggers showed no signs of slowing down as Deng scored 13 of the first 15 Mines points over the first 5:26 with the lone exception being a layup from Cade Mankle as part of a 15-4 run to push the lead to 50-27.
 
Mines continued to keep Chadron State at arm's length as the half went on, but a 10-3 run starting around the 10-minutes mark in the period saw the Eagles whittle away at the lead and close back to within a dozen at 57-45, but a layup from Schroeder stopped the momentum as the Orediggers looked to reestablish control of the action.
 
Following a three from Deng at the 5:46 mark after the make by Schroeder, the teams combined to score the 19 of the final 23 points from the free throw line to end the night with the Pepperdine transfer going a perfect 8-8 down the stretch as Mines got back into the win column with an all-around historic night by posting a 74-56 win.
                                       
NOTABLES
-Deng did the heavy lifting for Mines in the win, scoring an eye-popping 42 points on 12-20 shooting including 5-8 from downtown and going a perfect 13-13 at the free throw line
-Deng becomes the first Oredigger in the last nine season to post two 30-point games in a season since Gokul Natesan did so back in the 2015-16 season; his 42 points scored are the most in a game by a Mines player since Stephen Bahl dropped 50 on South Dakota Mines in the 2004-05 season and becomes the sixth 40-point game in program history
-Beskind chipped in seven points with three assists, a rebound and a steal
-Schroeder ended the night by posting a new career high mark in assists with five while scoring six points on 3-6 shooting with six rebounds
-Kraosvec also ended the night with six points and six boards on 3-6 shooting before fouling out in the second half
-Koch added five oof the bench on 2-4 shooting with three rebounds, a block and an assist
-Head coach Pryor Orser can now add another record to his already legendary career, as with the win Saturday night he surpassed the great Bob Hofman of Western Colorado and Fort Lewis to become the all-time winningest coach in RMAC history with 442 wins to his credit in the middle of his 23rd season at the helm in Golden
-Mines shot 11-18 (61.1%) in the second half Saturday and went 17-21 (81%) at the free throw line as a team in the win
 
UP NEXT
The Orediggers will be back in action Monday to play Colorado Christian in Lakewood at the CCU Event Center at 5:30 p.m. in a game that was originally scheduled for Friday night but was postponed due to a pregame incident that resulted in a shattered backboard. Following that, Mines will close the regular season at Lockridge Arena against Adams State and #3/3 Fort Lewis next Friday and Saturday March 1 & 2. Senior Night for the Orediggers is tentatively scheduled for Friday evening against the Grizzlies.

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.