GOLDEN, Colo. – The #16/11 Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team showed no signs of rust from the holiday break Saturday afternoon at Lockridge Arena, putting on a dominating performance on their way to a 106-48 win. The Orediggers (10-2) won the opening tip, scored first and never looked back behind a 52-point first half used a suffocating defensive performance to stymie the Eagles (5-21) all afternoon long.
 
Jonathan Moore won the opening tip against seven-footer Nico Majuec before Majok Deng went on to score 12 of the first 16 points of the game for Mines as they came flying out of the gates. A pair of Moore dunks complimented the dominant start from the second-year graduate transfer before Juani Dassie joined the fun with back-to-back three-pointers at 14:24 and 13:07 to make it a 22-0 lead to start.
 
Nigel Quaynor broke the seal for the Eagles with an inside jumper just before the under 12-minute media timeout, breaking an 0-9 start to the afternoon shooting with five turnovers in between. Cade Mankle scored off an inbounds pass from Markus Pastorcic-Straun coming out of the break and after a Quaynor dunk, Adam Krasovec scored to make it a 26-4 lead with 9:31 left in the half.
 
Three three-pointers over the next four possessions from Mines from Caleb Clark, Moore and Reagan Koch ran the lead to 31 at 35-4 with 7:09 left. That was part of a 16-0 run that was capped with a Clark layup off a Moore steal and a second trey from Koch before Eloy Medina hit a three-pointer for NNMC to briefly stop the momentum of the Orediggers at 43-7.
 
Deng, Pastorcic-Straun, Alex Romack and Dassie closed out the first half scoring for Mines as they took a 52-15 lead into the intermission.
 
The second half saw Mankle score the first four points to push the lead over 40 for the first time at 56-15 and though Northern New Mexico did show some resilience, a three-pointer from Deng at 15:11 made it a 41-point game at 66-25 as the lead never dwindled below that for the remainder of the action.
 
The advantage hovered in the 40s for the next nine minutes until another Deng three ball made it a 52-point advantage at 87-35. Romack and Mankle scored the next five before Koch and Dom Girish connected from deep in the final 4:39 to extend the lead to 56 at 98-42.
 
A Mankle jumper with 2:57 to go put the Orediggers at the century mark before Derek Lamb and Pastorcic-Straun closed out the scoring and sent the home faithful on their way with a 106-48 victory.
 
NOTABLES
-Deng was one of five in double figures as he netted a game-high 26 pm 8-11 shooting including 4-6 from deep and was a perfect 6-6 at the stripe while adding three rebounds in just 16 minutes
-Mankle went for double digits for the second time in as many games, finishing with 12 on 5-8 shooting with four assists in 20 minutes
-Dassie came off the bench an netted 12 on 4-7 shooting, all from three-point range to go along with three boards, two blocks, two assists and a steal in 19 minutes
-Koch added 11 off the bench for the second home game in a row and again finished two points off his season high, going 4-6 on the afternoon and 3-4 from downtown in 11 minutes
-Moore finished with his first career double digit scoring performance, going for 10 on 4-5 shooting with five boards and a career-high three steals, doubling his season total entering the game
-Romack added nine on 4-5 from the floor with five boards of his own along with three dimes, a steal and a block
-Clark chipped in a career-best eight points and was a perfect 3-3 shooting including 2-2 from three-point land with six rebounds, tying his career high from earlier in the season as four of his rebounds came on the offensive glass
-Grant Pressly turned a career day with 10 assists and had a shot at the single-game record of 13 as he also had five rebounds in 19 minutes as the first Oredigger since Sam Beskind to record a 10-assist game which happened last season against NNMC
-Lamb had a career day with both points and rebounds, recording four of each
-Krasovec scored five points in 13 minutes off the bench, his first points in three games since returning from an injury on November 26 against UCCS
-Mines assisted on 30 of 38 field goals in the game and shot 65.5% (38-58) for the afternoon, including 76% (19-25) in the second half
-The Orediggers also shot 56.7% (17-30) from three in the game while defensively recorded 10 steals and four blocks
-The 48 points allowed marks the first time Mines has held an opponent under 50 points since January 22, 2022 when they dispatched Westminster 88-48
-The Orediggers have now scored 100 or more points in two or more games for the second time in the last three seasons
-Mines got 49 points from their bench, 19 on fast breaks and scored 33 points off turnovers in the winning effort
 
UP NEXT
Conference play resumes for the Orediggers next weekend on the road as they head to Chadron State Thursday January 9 and South Dakota Mines Saturday January 11.

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.