GOLDEN, Colo. – Opening up their final full home weekend of the season Thursday night, the #8/10 Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team took the court at Lockridge Arena against Black Hills State looking for a reversal of their recent home fortunes in the series. In a game that saw a total of four ties and five lead changes and opened with a briskly played first half, the Orediggers (20-3, 14-1) pulled away over the final 20 minutes behind a season-best night from Riley Schroeder, as he led three in double figures in an 87-77 win over the Yellow Jackets (13-10, 9-6).
 
Things got off and running in a hurry to start the game as BHSU took a 13-7 lead in the first four minutes behind the strength of Colorado State transfer Cam Lowe as he scored six of the first 13 for the visitors. Though Mines scored first and briefly led in the opening moments, they didn't lead again until nearly halfway through the period. A mid-range jumper by Reagan Koch closed the deficit to 15-13 at the 14:47 mark before Jaeton Hackley pushed the Black Hills State lead to five at 22-17. Alex Romack flushed a wing three in front of the visiting bench and followed with a toe on the line two on the next possession as he tied things up at 22. Jonathan Moore cleaned up his own miss to take a two-point lead.
 
Joel Speckman came back and tied with an inside jumper that was part of a 10-2 run that flipped the advantage back in favor of BHSU at 32-26 with 7:15 to play. The deficit peaked at seven followed another trey by Hackley that made it 37-30, but the Orediggers had an answer as they went on a 10-2 run of their own to end the half. An Adam Krasovec three-pointer keyed things off before Moore completed an old school three-point opportunity to make it 37-36. A second-chance make by Speckman was the only reprieve for the Yellow Jackets as a pull-up jumper by Cade Mankle followed by a Romack layup made it 40-39 Mines at the half.
 
The action remained close coming out of the intermission as the score remained a two-possession game. Riley Schroeder scored five of the first seven for Mines in the half including a three-pointer that retook the lead 47-44 just two minutes in. Following a make by Lowe that cut it to a one-point lead, Koch completed a three-point play before Schroeder scored the next six for the Orediggers to make it an eight-point game at 58-50 with 12:30 remaining.
 
Caleb Clark converted another timely three-pointer to for the biggest lead of the night to that point at 11 on the next possession for Mines that forced BHSU to burn a timeout. Coming out of the break, the Yellow Jackets got back within six thanks to Caelin Hearne and Hackley, but four more points from Schroeder with another Krasovec trey in the middle kept it a double figure gap at 68-57 as time wound under 10 minutes.
 
A three by Tristan Hurdle briefly made it a six-point contest at the 7:15 mark, but Moore and Schroeder were up to the task as they mounted a response to make it a 76-64 advantage with 5:27 to go. Try as they might, BHSU never managed to get within half a dozen on the scoreboard over the final minutes, as Mines held their advantage and took care of things late from the free throw line. Koch applied the finishing touches in the final minute, going 4-4 as though Hackley netted two a pair with 39 seconds for the game high, the individual accolade was not to usurp the team win by the Orediggers, as Grant Pressly hauled in the final rebound as the horn sounded on an 87-77 victory.
 
NOTABLES
-Schroeder turned in a season-best 22 points on 7-10 shooting that included a 2-3 night from deep and a perfect 6-6 at the free throw line
-Romack netted 14 on 5-10 from the floor including just his second career three-pointer
-Krasovec came off the bench for his fourth double figure outing of the season, going for 12 on 5-7 from the floor and 2-4 from three and tied his season high with five boards
-Koch chipped in nine off the bench as well and had a perfect night, going 2-2 from the field and 5-5 at the line with four rebounds and two assists
-Moore finished with seven and six big rebounds on a 3-6 night that included a block on defense
-Mankle, Deng and Pastorcic-Straun all ended the night with six points and combined for seven rebounds and seven assists
-Pressly had a return to form game running the point, dishing out five assists without a turnover and leading the way with seven rebounds
-Mines shot 31-56 (55.4%) for the game, shooting over 52% in each half while hold BHSU to 29-64 (45.3%) for the night including 13-32 in the second half and 10-30 from three-point land for the game
-Mines improves to 17-13 in the series and 9-5 at home, snapping a three-game home skid in the series and carding their first victory against the Yellow Jackets in Lockridge Arena since February 21, 2020
 
UP NEXT
The Orediggers play their penultimate home game this season Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. against Chadron State.

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.