GOLDEN, Colo. – Back within the friendly confines of Lockridge Arena Friday night for their penultimate home game of the season and celebrating senior night, the #16/21 Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team looked to start the weekend at home off on the right foot against Adams State. After the night started off with a closely played game that ebbed and flowed, the Orediggers (22-7, 16-5) pulled away toward the end of the opening period and across the second half, sweeping the season series with the Grizzlies (8-19, 6-15) by a final score of 93-68.
 
Austin Fadal and Isaiah Sampson made it 4-0 ASU right out of the gate as Sam Beskind and Alex Romack did what they could to keep them from running out to a big lead before Majok Deng's transition jumper gave the home team their first lead of the night at 9-8 around the 16-minute mark. A three by the big man Sampson flipped the score back in favor of the Grizzlies who continued to lead for nearly the next four minutes until Reagan Koch splashed a three from Juani Dassie to tie things at 17 before Adam Krasovec retook the lead on a mid-range jumper from Cade Mankle with 11:11 left.
 
Adams State did not go quietly as Luke Williams tied things right back up at 19 and two free throws from Jude Tapia following a trey from Dassie kept it a one-point game. A 2-2 trip to the line by Krasovec followed by another three-ball from the lefty Dassie gave Mines their biggest lead to that point at 27-21 with 8:49 left, but struggled to pull away until the final two-plus minutes of the half. After a layup from Kaleb Mitchell off a steal by Destan Williams that made it 31-27, Deng answered back by splashing back-to-back three-pointers to quickly make it a 10-point game and force an ASU timeout. Coming out of the break, a jumper by Beskind and another three from Deng capped an 11-0 run to end the half for the Orediggers, as they took a 42-27 lead to the intermission.
 
Romack kept things rolling to open the second half, connecting on his second dunk attempt of the night with a wide-open run to the rack from Deng before laying one up and in from Mankle to make it 46-27. Riley Schroeder and Beskind got in on the fun too as the lead moved to 19, but the Grizzlies rallied their way back within a dozen behind a quick 7-0 run that made it 50-38 before scoring another quick seven just a few minutes later to cut the gap down to just nine at 54-45 following a jumper by Kolby Walker with 12:35 to play.
 
Mines weathered the rough stretch that included some turnovers and tough whistles against them though as Beskind pushed the lead back to double figures with a 2-2 trip to the stripe before burying a three from Markus Pastorcic-Straun to make it 59-45. Though ASU closed back to within 10 at 59-49 at the 9:53 mark, they would make no further ground as Koch kicked off a 14-2 run for the Orediggers with a three as Dassie added two of his own on consecutive tries to force another timeout before Schroeder capped things with a dunk to make it a 23-point game at 74-51.
 
A three from Tapia on the other end was answered back with two by Mines coming from Schroeder and Dassie as the Argentinian channeled his inner Manu Ginobili and kept raining down shots from outside as the lead swelled to 26 with 5:12 left. Schroeder's second three of the night made it 85-57 and signaled the end of the night for the 1s and 2s for Mines as Taylor Spurlock led the reserve unit off the bench to play out the stretch.
 
The senior from Kentucky promptly scored after checking back in for the first time in the second half, hitting a tough floater inside the paint to get on the board and make it 87-58. Adams State left their starters in and tried to make something happen despite trailing by 27, going on another 7-0 run before Spurlock again hit another jumper inside to break things up. Adams State got a three from Williams on the other end to cut it to a 21-point game but Spurlock clapped back with a three of his own from Grant Pressly to make it 92-68. The closing moments did get tense as after Sampson missed a layup inside, Mines cleared the ball back down the court to a wide-open Spurlock, who made the decision to drive for one last score and was rewarded for his efforts by getting clobbered on the shot by Sampson who was assessed a flagrant one foul. The Kentuckian closed the scoring by going 1-2 at the line as the ball went back to Mines and was inbounded to dribble out the clock on a 93-68 win.
                                         
NOTABLES
-Dassie followed up his performance Monday night with a career-high 20 points on 7-11 shooting including 6-8 from downtown while adding a rebound, a block and an assist
-Beskind celebrated his senior night with 14 points on 5-8 shooting that saw him go 2-4 from deep and 2-2 at the line with eight assists, three rebounds, three steals and a block
-Schroeder also added 14 of his own on 6-10 from the floor and was 2-2 from three while hauling in six rebounds
-Spurlock made the first start of his career and scored a career-high eight points on his senior night on 3-5 shooting including a three-pointer
-Romack went for eight in the game as well with four boards and a steal while going 3-4 shooting
-Pastorcic-Straun and Koch each posted six points off the bench and were a combined 5-10 with 10 rebounds, eight assists, two blocks and a steal between them
-10 different players scored in the game for Mines
-The Orediggers have now won the last 11 meetings the series with Adams State to improve to 77-90 all-time
 
UP NEXT
Mines wraps up the regular season Saturday night with a showdown against #2/6 Fort Lewis at Lockridge Arena at 7 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.