DALLAS, Texas – Looking to secure their spot in Tuesday night's South Central Region Final, the #7/9 Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team had a fight on their hands Saturday afternoon against upset-minded St. Mary's (TX) in the first of two semifinal contests Saturday. In a game which saw seven ties and 18 lead changes in the second meeting of the season between the teams, it was the Orediggers (29-4) who managed to pull away down the stretch paced by sophomore Alex Romack as they survived and advanced against the Rattlers (20-11) 66-63.
 
Romack scored the first points of the night off a miss by Cade Mankle before Eddie McPhee came back to other way with a layup for St. Mary's. Riley Schroeder followed with a three-point and a second-chance make of his own to make it a 7-2 lead before back-to-back treys from Sebastian Mendoza and Malcolm Steadman flipped the lead in favor of the Rattlers. Three more lead changes came in succession as a three-point by Mankle made it 12-10 Mines at the 14:06 mark.
 
Lachlan Bofinger and Franklin Agu scored the next four as the Rattlers sparked the first of three lead changes in 58 seconds as Bofinger completed the exchange with a layup to make it 16-15. The back-and-forth by play continued as six more lead changes ensued with St. Mary's using the final one to go on a 6-0 run to take a five-point lead at 27-22 with 7:46 in the half. Caleb Clark's three cut it to a two-point lead after the under-eight media timeout as Adam Krasovec helped keep it close with a free throw and a tip-in. After a Damani Claxton bucket, Reagan Koch's three-pointer tied things at 31 inside the four-minute mark before Claxton answered back right away with a three of his own the next possession.
 
Markus Pastorcic-Straun, Romack and Schroeder all scored down the stretch leading into halftime to prevent the Rattlers from getting too far ahead at the intermission as the first 20 minutes came to a close with the #6 seed leading 38-37.
 
Right away Claxton and the Rattler ran out to a five-point lead as play resumed, but just as quickly Majok Deng and Romack got Mines right back in it as the former netted two free throws and the latter converted a three-point play on a jumper to level the score at 42 with 17:11 remaining. A major turning point in the game followed as foul by Schroeder on a shot attempt by Bofinger was upgraded to the point of ejection after video review by the officials. Schroeder, looking to cause a tie-up on the entry pass to the post, caught Bofinger up high and ended up yanking him to the ground by his head as both players went crashing to the floor on the play.
 
Bofinger converted the ensuring free throws St. Mary's regained the lead and managed to fend off the Orediggers for nearly the next five minutes before back-to-back treys from Krasovec and Koch retook the lead 51-50. After a Romack layup, the Rattlers scored the next five thanks to Claxton and Wayne Wiggins as the leads changed hands once more at 55-53 just past the 10-minute mark.
 
A 7-0 burst by Mines netted them some breathing room as they retook the lead 60-55 in large part thanks to Krasovec and Koch as Grant Pressly closed the run with a steal and a layup. Wiggins and Bofinger closed the gap back to one at 60-59 before Krasovec and Agu traded free throws as time ticked inside four minutes. Agu then scored on a layup with 2:52 to play to retake the lead 63-62 as neither side scored again until there was 31 seconds left in regulation, with five missed field goals, three turnovers and a block in the interim. Fortunately the next basket was from the Orediggers as a missed layup by Claxton was hauled in by Krasovec and played ahead to Romack, who raced down the court and beat a pair of defenders on his way to the rack for what ended up as the go-ahead score.
 
The Rattlers had two misses from inside four feet on their next possession from Bofinger and Agu as Deng came down with the rebound, drawing the foul and then converting two free throws on the other end to make it a three-point lead. St. Mary's called a timeout and on the ensuing inbounds play, it looked as if Claxton had tied the game with an off-balance 30-footer from just in front of his own bench, but the shot was waved off as Wiggins called timeout and was granted one by the far side official with 2.7 seconds to go. The Rattler put the ball in Claxton's hands one final time out of the break and this time it was off the mark as the horn sounded with Mines advancing to the regional title game with a 66-63 win.
 
NOTABLES
-Romack turned in his second double-double of the season, coming up big with 17 points and 11 rebounds while going 7-10 from the floor
-Krasovec came up big as well, going for 13 points on 4-7 shooting including 2-4 from deep and just missed a double-double of his own, ending with eight rebounds and also dishing out three assists
-Schroeder had 10 points, three assists, two rebounds and a steal before calling it a day early following his ejection early in the second half
-Koch added nine off the bench on 3-7 shooting with a pair of treys and also had three assists
-Deng's late free throws helped secure the win as part of his six points to go with four rebounds
-The Orediggers are back in the regional championship game for the first time since the 2020-21 season when they last advanced to the Elite Eight by way of an 84-52 win over Northwest Nazarene
 
UP NEXT
The Orediggers await the winner of the second semifinal Sunday night between top-seeded Dallas Baptist and fourth-seeded Midwestern State in the South Central Regional final Tuesday night at 7 p.m. CT.

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.