SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team dropped their first Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference matchup of the season Thursday night, suffering am 87-70 setback at the hands of Westminster. The Orediggers (4-7, 2-1) and Griffins (6-3, 1-2) traded the lead several times in the opening minutes of the action, but the difference came down to a strong shooting performance by the home team as they went .541 from the floor and .481 from three in the game.
 
Westminster opened the game on an 8-3 run all coming from Tommy Ball to lead in the opening minutes. A three-pointer from Kellon Johnson and a 3-3 trip to the free throw line from Markus Pastorcic-Straun as Mines take their first lead of the night at 9-8 before Jonathan Moore converted a pair of free throws to make it 11-8 and cap the 8-0 run at 16:45. WU scored the next six to retake a 14-11 lead with 14:38 in the half. The Orediggers kept within striking distance and regained their lead thanks to another three-pointer from Johnson that made it 18-17 at 12:06. The lead was again short-lived as Cole Kadoguchi's three put the Griffins back ahead 20-18 on the next possession.
 
The separation hovered between two and five until another trey from Ball at 6:20 made it 35-27 Westminster. That basket ended up being the last one for nearly three-and-a-half minutes of game action as the teams went a combined 0-6 from the floor, 0-2 from the line and turned the ball over three times until Jake Nadauld hit a second-chance three to make it an 11-point game with 3:34 to play at 38-27. Pastorcic-Straun and Derek Lamb tried to close the deficit in the final minutes of the frame, but the Griffins had answers for the Orediggers as they took a 42-31 lead to the locker room.
 
As play resumed in the second half, Westminster continued their strong shooting performance as gradually stretched out their lead. Despite the efforts of Pastorcic-Straun and Romack over the final 20 minutes, the gap continued to grow. Looking for something to generate a spark, Mines tried a number of different personnel groupings in the second half. WU's lead hit 20 with 9:30 to go and peaked at 28 inside the six-minute mark, but to their credit Mines continued to play all the way to the end. A 10-0 run closed the gap to 83-65 by the four-minute mark, but it was too deficit to overcome with not enough time to do it. Braydon Jacob showed some flash down the stretch as did Lamb, Johnson and Cooper Mroczek, but it wasn't enough as the Griffins defended their home court and remained unbeaten in Salt Lake City this season with the 87-70 result.
 
NOTABLES
-Pastorcic-Straun led the way with 15 points in large part thanks to 7-10 at the free throw line while adding four rebounds and two assists
-Johnson ended the night with 12 points on 4-5 shooting including 2-3 from three and the stripe while pulling in four rebounds and dishing out two assists
-Lamb had the best performance of his young career, rounding out three in double figures as he went for 11 off the bench on 4-5 from the floor and 2-3 from the free throw line with two boards
-Moore ended his night with nine points and was a perfect 4-4 at the stripe with three boards
-Jacob closed out with eight points on 3-5 shooting with two assists and a steal
-Mroczek ended with five points on 2-4 from the floor and pocketed three steals
 
UP NEXT
The final RMAC action of the 2025 calendar year awaits the Orediggers Saturday in Grand Junction at 3 p.m. against Colorado Mesa.

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.