GOLDEN, Colo. – Looking to exorcise some frustrations over the loss of their 17-game winning streak in the all-time series with Colorado Christian 11 months ago, the #12/6 Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team was back in action at Lockridge Arena on a snowy Saturday in Golden and put on a show for the more than 400 fans in attendance. The Orediggers (14-2, 8-0) went back and forth with the Cougars (7-9, 3-5) for most of the first half, but clamped down on defense and fueled by a 26-5 to open the second on their way to an 85-64 win.
 
Like Thursday, the Orediggers won the opening tip but it was CCU who scored first on a tip-in layup by Tate Odvody. Riley Schroeder flushed a three-pointer on the next possession for what was the first of five lead changes in the opening half. The second, third and fourth exchanges came in succession on a layup from Bradley land and another three from Majok Deng before Schafer Reichart's wing three made it 7-6 CCU coming out of the under-16 media timeout.
 
The Cougars continued to lead as the opening period went on, pushing their advantage to as high as six on three occasions with the last being a Reichart layup that made it 19-13 with 9:34 to play. A three-pointer by Markus Pastorcic-Straun followed by a pair of Deng free throws cut the lead to one before a 1-2 trip at the line from Land briefly made it a 20-18 game. Two more Deng free throws tied it before Reagan Koch buried a trey to retake the lead with 6:33 before the intermission on a pass from Adam Krasovec.
 
Bobby McWard answered on the other end with a three of his own, but a layup from the big Hungarian Krasovec and a second three ball from Koch out the Orediggers back ahead for good this time. Grant Pressly got in on the action with a pair of free throws after going coast-to-coast following a layup from Land to make it a 30-25 game.
 
The first half lead for Mines peaked at seven following a Cade Mankle three-pointer that made it 35-27 as both teams continued to play each other tough heading to halftime with a Jacob Everson three cutting the lead to four at 39-35 after 20 minutes.
 
Coming out of the locker room, Mines resumed play with nine straight points as part of an 11-2 run that swelled the lead to 13 at 50-37 following a pair of free throws and a layup from Markus Pastorcic-Straun with 15:40 remaining. The sophomore from Ontario added another layup to make it six straight points moments later as part of a larger 26-5 run that spanned nearly 10 minutes and swelled the lead to 25 at 65-40. Seven different players contributed over the course of that stretch as it was a pair of Koch free throws that made it a 20-point lead as the margin never dipped below that for the rest of the action.
 
Having effectively implemented their full-court pressure and playing excellent defense in the front court, Mines made life extremely difficult for the Cougars on offense as the lead continued to grow. Pastorcic-Straun made it a 29-point game for the first time and gave the Orediggers their largest lead with a driving layup with just over six minutes left that made it 78-49.
 
A rare dunk from Krasovec and a midrange jumper from Schroeder both courtesy of two dimes from Caleb Clark brought the Mines bench and fans to their feet over the closing minutes. Dom Girish closed out the scoring with a second-chance three-pointer off a Clark rebound, as while CCU scored 11 of the final 14 points in the game, it was a case of too little too late as the Orediggers swept the weekend at home with an 85-64 victory.
 
NOTABLES
-Deng led all scorers with 18 points as he returned to form, going 4-8 from the floor, 2-5 from three and 8-9 at the line with seven boards, a steal and an assist
-Mankle dropped a season-high 17 points on 7-10 from the field including 3-5 from downtown with two rebounds, an assist and a steal
-Pastorcic-Straun capped a big weekend with 15 points on 4-7 from the floor highlighted by a rare three-pointer along with a 6-8 day at the stripe with three more steals as he turned in his third straight double figure outing
-Schroeder just missed double figures in the late going, finishing with nine points and adding a block and steal defensively
-Koch added eight off the bench with four rebounds and an assist
-Krasovec's only assist of the game was all he needed to record 100 in his career, finishing with four points and a rebound in 14 minutes
-Dassie snapped a three-game scoreless streak with a long two-point bucket in the second half
-11 different players scored in the win
-Mines recorded nine steals and forced 19 CCU turnovers and once again played lockdown three-point defense as the Cougars went just 7-29 (24.1%) from behind the arc
-The Orediggers also made it a parade to the free throw line, going 23-29 from the stripe and more than doubling the amount of trips by the Cougars
 
UP NEXT
Mines is back at home next Thursday night for a Top 25 clash with #19/17 MSU Denver at 7:30 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.