CHADRON, Neb. – In their first Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action of the new year, the #15/13 Colorado School of Mines men's basketball saw contributions up and down the lineup Thursday night as they moved to 5-0 in league action behind a 76-61 win. The Orediggers (11-2, 5-0) scored first and never trailed against the Eagles (6-7, 2-3) as the veteran trio of Majok Deng, Riley Schroeder and Grant Pressly shined while the supporting cast was just as stellar in the winning effort.
 
Schroeder started the night with a three-pointer after missing the last contest against Northern New Mexico before Deng hit a trey of his own and three free throws after he drew a foul shooting from deep following a steal by Jonathan Moore to quickly make it a 9-0 Mines lead less than two minutes in.
 
Darrius Miles scored the first bucket for the Eagles and recorded a 1-2 trip to the free throw line following a Jalen Thomas jumper to cut the lead to 9-5, but a 9-0 run by the Orediggers including seven from Schroeder swelled the advantage to 18-5 as CSC called a timeout at 14:24 to try and stem the tide.
 
Coming out of the break, John Jenkins knocked down a three for the home team followed by a layup by Julio Phipps. Cade Mankle's mid-range jumper at 13:02 briefly pushed the lead back to 10 before a six-point sequence in 26 seconds resulted in Chadron State closing to within eight at 22-14. Deng, Pressly and Moore did their bit to keep the Eagles at arm's length as a dunk by the Pepperdine transfer with 6:48 to go made it a 13-point game at 31-18.
 
Slowly CSC whittled the gap back to single digits as Jenkins, Miles and Phipps scored the next six to close to within seven. Zy Wright's layup at 3:33 made it a 33-28 game and after two free throws from Moore, Reagan Koch closed out the scoring in the half with a layup at 2:49 as the teams combined to go 0-5 with three turnovers down the stretch as Dalton Peterson had a chance a buzzer beater going to the break, but came up short as Mines took a 37-28 lead to the locker room.
 
Coming out of the intermission, Mines went on a 12-2 run over the first 3:41 to run the lead to 49-30. Pressly got things going with a layup before a jumper from Moore and two Schroeder free throws sandwiched around a jumper by Miles for the Eagles. Pressly hit just his fourth three-pointer of the season before Deng followed suit to force a CSC timeout.
 
Miles and Phipps scored the next five for Chadron State as the action resumed as they looked to claw back into contention. After two free throws each from Markus Pastorcic-Straun and Phipps, Alex Romack took flight for a dunk from Adam Krasovec before the big Hungarian nailed a straightaway three to make it 56-37. Following a traditional three-point by Pastorcic-Straun, Zach Smith and Jaiya DeDllos whittled the gap back to 15 with 12:09 remaining at 59-44.
 
That was as close as the Eagles managed to come for the remainder of the night as Romack pushed the lead back to 20 on a layup from Krasovec with just over five minutes to play to make it 72-52. Though Chadron State scored nine of the final 13 points of the game including a layup at the buzzer by Thomas, the outcome was already in hand as the Orediggers won their third-straight game by a final of 76-61 and improve to 5-0 in true road games this season.
 
NOTABLES
-Deng led all scorers with 17 in the game bolstered by a 7-7 night at the free throw line with three rebounds in 27 minutes
-Schroeder's three-pointer to start the game put him on the north side of 800 career points in a Mines uniform as he went on to finish with 12 on 4-8 shooting with a pair of three pointers along with two rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal
-Pressly recorded the 150th rebound of his career as he was nearly perfect in the game, clocking a career-high 34 minutes as he finished with nine points on 3-4 shooting with six rebounds, three steals and two assists
-Moore followed up his big game last Saturday with eight points on 2-3 from the floor and 4-4 at the line with four dimes, three boards and a steal
-Romack also added eight as he finished strong down the stretch, finishing 4-4 at the stripe with three rebounds and a pair of steals
-Koch chipped in eight of his own off the bench on 3-4 shooting in 17 minutes of work
-Pastorcic-Straun netted seven with four rebounds and three assists in 20 minutes
-The Orediggers were one free throw shy of a perfect night at the line, going 23-24 in the game including 15-15 in the second half, their best night at the free throw line with at least 15 attempts since they went 28-29 back on November 18, 2022 at Cal state East Bay
-Defensively Mines pocketed seven steals and forced 18 Chadron State turnovers and sent CSC to the free throw line just eight times and held them to 6-16 (37.5%) from the three-point line
-Mines has now won 30 straight games against the Eagles and are now 47-44 all-time and 22-29 as the road team in the series
 
UP NEXT
This weekend's road trip concludes Saturday in Rapid City with a STEM showdown against South Dakota Mines at 3 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.