GOLDEN, Colo. – It was a metro area showdown Saturday night at Lockridge Arena as the top two seeds in the 2025 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Championship, #9/9 Colorado School of Mines and Regis, squared off for the tournament title in front of another electric crowd of more than 1,400. For the home faithful in attendance, they had plenty to celebrate as it was all Orediggers (27-4) from the opening tip as they raced out to a 30-point lead in the first half and never looked back, claimed the silver championship cup over the Rangers (18-13) by a final score of 92-64.
 
It was another blistering start for Mines on offense as Majok Deng scored nine of the first 11 points of the game with a three-point barrage to help race out to an 11-0 lead. Riley Schroeder kept it going with a layup after Eddy Egun got Regis on the board with a layup before Alex Romack scored four in a row including a dunk from Grant Pressly as the lead swelled to 18-4 by the first media timeout of the night.
 
Deng kept it going as play resumed, knocking down his fourth three of the half before cleaning up a miss by Romack. A jumper by Schroeder was followed by a corner three and a driving layup by Caleb Clark as the Orediggers lead 30-4 inside the opening eight minutes of action as the Rangers seemingly had a lid on their basket. A couple of makes from Jalen Page briefly cut the deficit to 22, but Juani Dassie and Adam Krasovec quickly remedied that as the lead moved to 36-10 at the 9:57 mark.
 
After Deng and Cade Mankle exchanged buckets with Page to make it 44-16, Markus Pastorcic-Straun scored the next four to make it a 30-point lead for the first time with 5:02 in the half. A couple of three-pointers from Trey Bryant and Chase Mayo Harmon made it a 50-24 game in the waning minutes of the first half before a three-point play from Mankle and a Pastorcic-Straun layup sandwiched around a Ty Cox three-pointer made it 55-27 after 20 minutes of action.
 
Mines showed no signs of slowing down to begin the second half, as a Schroeder layup and a put back dunk from Deng made it a 32-point game. Regis did manage to whittle the gap down to 24 three times thanks to Egun, but that ended up being as close as things would get for the balance of the contest.
 
A three-pointer from Pressly at 11:24 made it a 30-point game against 71-41 as part of an 11-2 run that also saw contributions from Deng and Krasovec. Pressly's second trey of the game gave the Orediggers their biggest lead of the night at 81-43 with 8:10 left. Reagan Koch got in on the action with a three-point with just over five minutes to play on converted a pair of free throws along with Romack before the first and second units ceded the floor to Mines' third line unit. Jonathan Moore put an exclamation point on the night with a one-handed put back slam off a miss from Derek Lamb to make it 92-59 as five late points from the Rangers' reserves did little than make a dent in the final score as the buzzer sounded on a 92-64 championship-clinching win.
 
NOTABLES
-Deng led all players on his way to MVP honors with 23 points in the game on 9-11 shooting including 5-6 from three-point land
-Mankle went off for 15 points on 7-11 from the floor with two boards, two assists and a steal
-Schroeder finished with 10 on 4-6 shooting with three rebounds, three assists and a steal
-Romack also ended with 10 and hauled in six rebounds with two assists, a block and a steal
-Krasovec netted seven with six rebounds and went 3-5 from the field
-Pressly hauled in five rebounds while dishing out six assists and finishing with six points on 2-3 shooting, all from three-point land
-11 different players scored in the game for the Orediggers as all 14 uniformed players saw action in the game
-Mines registered 50 points in the paint as they shot 58.75 (37-63) in the game with a scorching 67.7% (23-34) in the first half
-The Orediggers tallied 22 assists on 37 made field goals and had eight steals on 14 turnovers by Regis
-The 2025 tournament title is the third in program history for Mines and is also the third time that the Orediggers have swept the league titles (2011-12, 2016-17)
 
2025 RMAC All-Tournament Team
Most Valuable Player, Majok Deng, Mines
Cade Mankle, Mines
Jalen Brown, Regis
Markus Pastorcic-Straun, Mines
Chase Mayo Harmon, Regis
Riley Schroeder, Mines
Cam Lowe, Black Hills State
Chuol Deng, Fort Lewis
 
UP NEXT
The NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Championship Selection Show will air on ncaa.com Sunday March 9 at 11 p.m. ET/9 p.m. MT as the Orediggers will be dialed in to see where they'll be heading and who they'll be playing in the national tournament.

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.