BILLINGS, Mont. – Taking the court for the first time Friday morning, the tenth-ranked Colorado School of Mines Orediggers opened their 2025-26 season against Central Missouri in game two of the D2CCA Tipoff Classic at The Trailhead hosted by MSU Billings. The new-look Orediggers (0-1) found themselves trailing by more than 20 at one point in the action and managed to storm back to within five late in the second half thanks to a pair of 20-point performances, but weren't quite able to complete to comeback as the Mules (1-0) held on for the 96-84 win.
 
The first stint of the season saw Central Missouri score first before a three-point play from Alex Romack resulted in the first points and first lead of the season for Mines. UCM gained some brief separation before a 7-0 run by the Orediggers saw them go back on top 13-11 at the 15:24 mark. A Trinell Parker layup kickstarted a 12-2 run for the Mules that saw them push their lead to 23-15 against the second unit for Mines as three turnovers led to six points the other way.
 
After the starting five returned to the court and found themselves down by 10, Mines went to work on trimming the deficit starting with three points from Jonathan Moore to make it a seven-point game at 25-18 with just over 11 minutes to play. Moore continued to buoy the Orediggers before being joined by Trent Minter as UCM led 32-23 at the under-eight media timeout. Another 8-0 run by the Mules against the youth of the Orediggers' second line saw the gap swell to 40-23 by the 5:17 mark in the opening half. Braydon Jacob's second three-pointer of the day keyed off a frenzied 14-point sequence down the stretch to end the half as Mines closed back to within 15 at 46-31 by the 2:14 mark, Central Missouri briefly pushed their lead up to 20 in the final minute following a bucket by Parker that made it 51-31 before Shelton Henton ended the half with a 2-2 trip to the line to close the half.
 
Coming out to start the second half, Central Missouri managed to push their lead back to 20 briefly before the Orediggers finally found their footing and stormed back into contention. After a layup by Lazerek Houston made it 59-38, Moore scored the next nine for the Orediggers to close back within 14 at 61-47. Mines continued their rally as they cut the gap down to 10 at 70-60 following a layup from Markus Pastorcic-Straun near the 11-minute mark before Will Cordonnier brought the gap back to eight with 10:29 to play.
 
Six straight from the stripe from Pastorcic-Straun starting with 8:19 remaining cut the Mules' lead further down to 76-70. A layup from Romack made it a five-point game with just over six minutes to play, but untimely turnovers reared their head once again as UCM ran back out to an 87-73 lead with 3:46 remaining. Undeterred Mines looked to shake off the miscues and rally again but just ran out of time as while a late three from Shelton Henton made it 94-84, two free throws on the other end iced the game as Central Missouri claimed the 12-point win.
 
NOTABLES
-Moore led the way scoring with the first 20-ball of his career and had a big day across the board, dropping 22 points on 7-9 shooting including 4-6 from the floor and 4-5 from the line with two rebounds, a steal and a block
-Pastorcic-Straun also went for 22 behind 6-14 from the floor and 9-12 at the line while adding five assists, four rebounds and three steals
-Romack netted 12 on 4-8 shooting and 4-5 from the floor with five boards
-Jacob scored six in his debut on 2-5 from three-point range with three rebounds; he's also the first Oredigger to appear in a game wearing #10 since Ben Grusing in the 2020-21 season
-Minter scored four with a team-leading six rebounds and three assists to go with a steal; he becomes just the second player in program history to wear #0
-Henton added seven off the bench on 2-3 shooting with three boards and two dimes
-Cordonnier also went for seven off the bench with two steals and a block; he's the first Oredigger to appear in a game wearing #25 since Josh Heraldn in the 1995-96 season
-A total of seven Orediggers made their collegiate debuts Friday as along with Minter, Johnson, Jacob, Henton, and Cordonnier, Cooper Mroczek and Matija Jordovic also saw action
-Mines shot .482 from the floor in the game while UCM shot .609
-Turnovers were the kryptonite for Mines in their opener, as 17 giveaways led to 29 points for the Mules
 
UP NEXT
Mines plays former RMAC member Nebraska-Kearney bright and early Saturday morning at 9 a.m. The Lopers dropped their weekend opener to Angelo State Friday 73-62.

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.