GOLDEN, Colo. – Back at home for the second time in 2025, the #12/6 Colorado School of Mines men's basketball squared off against CSU Pueblo Thursday night at Lockridge Arena. For the fifth time this season, the Orediggers' (13-2, 7-0) bench combined for 15 points headlined by Alex Romack, Markus Pastorcic-Straun and Adam Krasovec as five players finished the night in double figures while the defense forced 16 turnovers and limited the ThunderWolves (8-7, 3-4) to just 3-12 from long range in the 96-75 win.
 
Though Mines won the tip, it was Jake Lafferty who scored first to give CSU Pueblo the first lead. The ThunderWolves led for most of the first four minutes until Riley Schroeder's inside jumper leveled things at 4-4 before Adam Krasovec knocked down a three-pointer to give Mines their first lead 7-4 at 15:54.
 
CSUP battled back as the teams traded the lead three times on three consecutive possessions, first on a layup from Brevin Walter to make it 11-9, followed by Reagan Koch trey to make it 12-11 and finally a Denim Johnson layup to put the visitors back ahead 13-12 with 13:00 left in the half. Again CSU Pueblo held the lead until Grant Pressly came away with a steal off Lafferty before finding Cade Mankle up ahead to flip the score to 17:16 just past the 10-minute mark.
 
Another three lead changes ensued over the following minutes as Schroeder and Kesean Bazile hit dueling three-pointers as CSUP came out ahead in the exchange 22-20. Following a 1-2 trip to the free throw line by Alex Romack, Pressly came away with another steal off Jaden Kennis and handled the scoring himself, taking it to the rim for a layup on what ended up being the go-ahead basked at the 7:21 mark to make it 23-22.
 
Mines never really managed to pull away over the final minutes of the opening frame and despite stringing together a 7-0 run to run the advantage to nine at 41-32, a thunderous dunk from Kennis before the break closed the gap to 41-34 after 20 minutes as it felt like the outcome of the game was still in the air.
 
Whatever halftime adjustments the Orediggers made, they were effective as they opened the second period on a 12-4 run fueled by a pair of three-pointers from Majok Deng and Mankle with assists from Pressly on three of the four field goals during the sequence. That pushed the lead out to 15 at 53-38 with 17 minutes to play.
 
Despite the best efforts of the ThunderWolves, they never managed to close the gap back to single digits for the rest of the night. While the lead dropped to 10 on a few occasions, the response by the Orediggers was always swift and authoritative. A thunderous dunk from Romack from Pastorcic-Straun brought the crowd to their feet and made it a 16-point lead at 76-60 with 8:47 in regulation.
 
The lead hit 20 for the first time on Mankle layup from Romack at 5:58 as part of a 6-0 Mines run that made it 86-64 just past the six-minute mark. An old-fashioned three-point play from Schroeder peaked the lead at 26 with 3:40 on the clock at 91-65. With fouls mounting late and one player from each team calling it a night early with five personals, both sides emptied their benches to play out the stretch. Though CSUP scored six of the final eight, a layup with 26 seconds left by Koch pushed the margin back to 21 and closed out the scoring in an exciting 96-75 win.
 
NOTABLES
-Mankle led all scorers with 16 points on 7-14 shooting with three rebounds, three assists and two steals
-Romack went for 15 points off the bench to lead the second unit on a perfect 6-6 from the floor and 3-5 at the line with two assists, a block and a steal
-Pastorcic-Straun put on a show for his family from Ontario and his host family from North Carolina, dropping 14 of his own on 5-8 shooting and going a perfect 4-4 at the stripe with a career-best seven assists to go with three steals and three rebounds
-Krasovec finished in double figures for the second game in a row, also going for 14 on 4-8 shooting including 3-4 from downtown and tied a season-high five rebounds to go with a block and a steal defensively
-Schroeder was the fifth of five in double digits in the win, finishing with 13 on 4-7 from the floor and 4-5 at the line with four rebounds and a block before fouling out late
-Koch chipped in nine on 4-5 shooting
-Pressly recorded his 150th career assist and finished with six in the game along with five points on 2-3 shooting with four more rebounds and tied his season high with three steals
-Mines tied a season-high with 55 points from their bench and finished with 26 assists, both which last happened on November 16 at UT Dallas
-The Orediggers shot 61% (36-59) in the winning effort, recording their third game this season of 60% or better from the floor
-The 11 steals on the defensive end are the third-most in a game this season as are the four blocks
-10 different players contributed on offense while 11 recorded at least one rebound
-Mines finished the night with 26 assists on 36 made field goals as they continue to remain one of the national leaders in that department
 
UP NEXT
Mines continues their weekend at home Saturday afternoon against Colorado Christian.

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.