Mines (13-12, 9-5 RMAC) at #20 Black Hills State (18-4, 11-3 RMAC) – Thursday, 7 p.m. – Spearfish, S.D. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network PPV]
Mines (13-12, 9-5 RMAC) at Chadron State (5-17, 3-11 RMAC) – Saturday, 3 p.m. – Chadron, Neb. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network PPV]

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HEADED NORTH
The last long road trip of the regular season awaits the Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team this weekend as they'll head north for a pair of important games against #20 Black Hills State Thursday and Chadron State Saturday.

LIVE COVERAGE
This week's games will be available for purchase on the RMAC Network. Free live stats will be available as well. Links for video and stats can be found on minesathletics.com.
 
RMAC NETWORK CHANGES
As was announced on June 30, 2025, this year the RMAC Network is moving to a pay-per-view model for all events beginning with the 2025-26 season.
 
RMAC fans can purchase monthly and annual subscriptions that will provide them access to all regular-season, championship, and archived broadcasts on the RMAC Network. A monthly subscription costs $25, and an annual subscription costs $130. Single-game passes are available for $10, which grants access to a single game for 24 hours. For technical support questions, fans may submit a support ticket with Hudl Support or email the RMAC directly (rmac@rmacsports.org). For further support, fans can visit the RMAC Network Help page.

AT THE HELM
The 2025-26 season will be the 25th for the Orediggers under the guidance of head coach Pryor Orser. The winningest coach in the history of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, Orser's record stands at 487-244 overall and a mark of 344-162 in league play. Under Orser, Mines has won six RMAC regular-season championships and three RMAC Tournament titles and qualified for 14 NCAA Tournaments including two Elite Eight trips. 
 
IN THE POLLS
Mines was picked to finish second in the RMAC this season in the preseason coaches poll announced in late October. Black Hills State was the favorite to win while the top five behind Mines included Colorado Mesa, UCCS and Fort Lewis.
 
The latest national poll saw significant shakeups with Washburn taking over the top spot followed by Daemen. Southern Nazarene moved up to #3 followed by West Texas A&M and Nova Southeastern to round out the top five.

WEEK 13 RECAP
Mines bounced back from being swept on the road at Fort Lewis and Adams State by returning home and sweeping Western Colorado and Westminster 84-67 and 77-71 in overtime. Against the Mountaineers, the Orediggers held the RMAC's scoring leader Aidan McDowell to just 22 points and his worst three-point performance of the season at 2-11 while collectively limiting WCU to 3-27 from deep. Shelton Henton led the way with 23 points and was joined in double figures by Alex Romack with another double-double of 19 points and 13 boards, Will Cordonnier with 17 points and Trent Minter with 16. Saturday Mines needed extra time to knock off the Griffins as the big men feasted on both side of the ball. Romack turned in another double-double with 19 and 11 while adding four blocks, while Jonathan Moore dropped a career-high 23 with four blocks for the third time in a game this season as the pair combined to go 16-27 from the floor and 6-11 from three.
 
RMAC RESET
The race for the postseason is heating up with three weeks left in the regular season. Fort Lewis, coming off their first two RMAC losses of the season last weekend, remains in the lead at 12-2 but their lead has dropped to just one game over Colorado Mesa and Black Hills State at 11-3. CSU Pueblo knocked off UCCS Tuesday night to move up a half game to fourth at 10-5 ahead of Adams State and Mines in fifth at 9-5 and are one game ahead of New Mexico Highlands in seventh at 8-6. If the season ended today, UCCS at 7-8 would be the final team in the postseason field while Colorado Christian and South Dakota Mines would be the first two teams out at 6-8. MSU Denver and Western Colorado are tied for 11th at 5-9 ahead of Westminster at 4-10. Chadron State is 3-11 while Regis is still seeking their first win at 0-14.
 
WEEKLY AWARD WINNER
For the second time this season, junior Alex Romack has been named RMAC Defensive Player of the Week following his performances against Western Colorado and Westminster. Read more about Romack's award-winning week here.
 
BURN THAT SHIRT
Orediggers fans have quickly gotten acquainted with freshman Kasen Lehman over the last three weeks as the Castle Rock native has announced his arrival with authority. Since debuting against Chadron State on January 8, Lehman has scored 20 or more points twice and gone for double figures off the bench in four of 10 games. He's averaging 9.2 PPG at the moment and is shooting .459 from the floor and .370 from deep with 10 steals and five assists in just about 19 minutes a night off the bench. Having passes his allotment of games in order to retain his redshirt for this season, Lehman figures to be a key piece for the Orediggers down the stretch off the bench heading towards the postseason.
 
DOUBLE-DOUBLE MACHINE
What Alex Romack is doing this season is something never before seen in the history of Mines basketball when it comes to double-double performances. Coming into the season, Romack had just eight double-doubles in his career with six of those coming in his RMAC Freshman of the Year campaign in the 2023-24 season. This season, the junior from Indiana is up to 16 such performances already with still three weeks left to go in the season. That total ranks second in NCAA Division II and is tied for third across all levels of the NCAA this season.
 
Looking back through the years, the most double-doubles by an individual in a season in the last 13 years came courtesy of Trevor Wages with 14 in the 2013-14 season. In fact since the year 2000, there have just been three seasons with 10 or more double-doubles by an Oredigger, as Wages recorded 12 in the 2012-13 season. And for more context as to what Romack has been doing this season, over the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, Mines had a combined 13 double-doubles as a team and in the two seasons before that, combined for just 10 total double-doubles.
 
HEEEEERE'S JONNY!
After recording his first career double-double at Fort Lewis two weeks ago, Jonathan Moore turned in a career-best scoring performance in Saturday's overtime win over Westminster. In the 77-71 win, the junior from Florida went for 23 points on 8-13 shooting including 5-9 from downtown while tying his career-high in blocks with four. In the final nine minutes of regulation and in overtime, Moore scored 13 of the final 27 points by the Orediggers and was instrumental in first tying the game before helping secure the win. Over the last three weeks, Moore is averaging 14.2 PPG with a pair of 20-pointers mixed in.
 
BLOCK PARTY
Opposing teams have driven in the paint against the Orediggers at their own peril this season, and the numbers prove it. A team with significant length and athleticism inside defensively, Mines is tied for the RMAC lead with 105 blocked shots and are among the top teams in Division II in rejections. Leading the effort have been the big men Jonathan Moore and Alex Romack, with 34 and 25 blocks respectively. Moore ranks second in the RMAC in rejections, with Romack close behind in a tie for third. Will Cordonnier and Derek Lamb have also led things defensively inside off the bench with nine and eight blocks respectively. In fact, 12 of the 14 Orediggers who have suited up this season have recorded at least one block, while 10 have at least a pair to their credit.
 
FROM DOWNTOWN
Mines also finds themselves tops in the RMAC as a team with 228 field goals of the three-point variety and with good reason. Eight Orediggers have made 10 or more treys this season, lead by freshman Shelton Henton's 63. In fact, Henton ranks third in the RMAC in three-pointers while his .434 shooting rate from deep is good for eighth. Jonathan Moore follows with 37 ahead of Kellon Johnson and Braydon Jacob with 22 while Kasen Lehman has 20. Markus Pastorcic-Straun had 16 triples before his injury while Cooper Mroczek has 18 and Will Cordonnier has 15.
 
GLASS CLEANERS
This season, no one in the RMAC has been better than the Orediggers on the glass and it hasn't been close. In 25 games, the Orediggers lead the RMAC with 938 total rebounds and are fifth in rebounding average at 37.5. They also lead the RMAC with 320 offensive rebounds and are fourth in the RMAC with 12.8 offensive boards per game. In fact, just 18 teams nationally have more total offensive rebounds than Mines, who ranks in the top 50 nationally on the offensive glass.
 
BUTKOVICH INDUCTED TO MINES HOF
The first All-American in program history, Joe Butkovich was inducted earlier this fall to the Harry D. Campbell Mines Hall of Fame. A prolific scorer and rebounder in the post, Butkovich was named an all-American as a senior in 1971-72, the Orediggers' first national honoree. Upon the conclusion of his career, Butkovich was Mines' all-time rebounding leader with 891 and third on Mines' all-time scoring list with 1,641 points. More than 50 years after graduating, he still owns Mines' career and season per-game rebounding records of 11.7 and 12.3 (1970-71) rebounds per game, respectively, and he also set the record (since broken) for season scoring average with 24.9 points per game in 1971-72; today he ranks third in that category. That senior season saw him lead the RMAC in scoring and rank among the NCAA and NAIA national leaders in both scoring and rebounding, and his top individual games were a 37-point night against Western New Mexico (the Mines single-game record at the time) and 20 rebounds against UMKC. 

Butkovich earned his degree in engineering from Mines in 1972. His post-collegiate basketball career included tryouts with the Denver Nuggets and Chicago Bulls, and he played professionally in France and Belgium before returning stateside to work as an engineer, spending much of his career dismantling chemical weapons across the United States. 
 
CHECKING THE STATS
Alex Romack leads the active roster in scoring at 13.7 PPG on .543 shooting and is also tops on the team with 9.4 RPG while adding 54 assists, 27 steals and 25 blocks. Jonathan Moore is right with him, scoring 12.7 PPG with 5.6 RPG while shooting .500 from the floor and .481 from three and being one of the top shot blockers in the RMAC with 34 rejections.  Shelton Henton is averaging 10.6 PPG pm .434/.437/816 shooting with 48 assists and 17 steals, while Kasen Lehman is scoring 9.2 per night on .459 shooting with 10 steals.
 
Kellon Johnson remains steady with 7.3 PPG on .450 shooting with 45 assists, 21 steals and six blocks. Cooper Mroczek is scoring 5.5 PPG along with Trent Minter, who has enjoyed a strong second half of the season and leads the team with 85 assists along with 23 steals and 10 blocks. Braydon Jacob and Will Cordonnier both flashed over the weekend and are each averaging 4.3 PPG with 37 three-pointers and 31 steals between them.
 
On the year, Mines averages 78.5 PPG and is +3.2 in scoring margin. They've shot .450/.351/.702 this season compared to .451/.308/.719 by the opposition and are +3.0 in rebounding margin at 37.5 RPG. Mines averages 16.8 assists per game this year and turns the ball over 13.1 times per game for a -2.1 TO margin while scoring 11.8 PPG off turnovers. Defensively, the Orediggers average 6.8 steals and 4.2 blocks per game.
 
SCOUTING BLACK HILLS STATE
The Yellow Jackets went 1-1 last week and saw their four-game winning streak come to an end at the hands of CSU Pueblo Thursday night on the road by a score of 71-53 before rebounding with a win Saturday against UCCS in Colorado Springs 112-81.
 
Three players are scoring better than 12 PPG for BHSU led by standout Cam Lowe at 18.2 PPG. Lowe also leads the Yellow Jackets with 6.3 RPG and has shot .496/.435/.903 this year with 55 assists, 25 steals and seven blocks while connecting a team-high 64 times from downtown. Myles Johnson, who did not play last season, is second in scoring at 12.6 PPG on .580 shooting with 4.1 RPG and leads BHSU with 31 steals while also adding 12 blocked shots. Jaeton Hackley rounds out the group at 12.3 PPG on .533 shooting this season and is tops on the team with 91 assists.
 
Three-point specialist Tristan Hurdle remains a threat off the bench, averaging 9.7 PPG on .469 shooting from the floor and .451 from three with 46 of his 68 field goals this season being of the three-point variety. Jack Haggett checks in averaging 9.0 PPG with 5.4 RPG on .493 shooting with a team-best 23 blocked shots to go with 55 assists and 17 steals. Seale Jackson averages 7.0 PPG on .426 shooting with 43 assists and 19 blocks, while BJ Woodruff (6.9 PPG, .444 3FG%, 38 AST) and Blake Volmer (3.6 PPG, .500 3FG%, 23 AST) are also ones to watch.
 
On the year, BHSU averages 4.3 PPG and is +13.3 in scoring margin. They have shot .504/.391/.754 this season against .420/.322/.750 by opponents. They average 37.6 RPG and are +5.7 in rebounding margin, while dishing out 18.2 assists per game. BHSU turns the ball over 11.9 times per game but is just +0.3 in TO margin and scores 15.2 PPG off turnovers. Defensively, they average 6.1 steals and 3.5 blocks per game.
 
SCOUTING CHADRON STATE
The Eagles look to rebound at home this weekend after being swept on the road at Colorado Christian 86-80 and at CSU Pueblo 74-65. CSC is 2-4 over their last six games with their most recent win coming at South Dakota Mines 88-79 on January 29. They'll host MSU Denver first this week before taking on the Orediggers.
 
Isaiah Randolph now leads CSC in scoring at 14.1 PPG on .538/.314/.891 shooting with 5.0 RPG, 43 assists and a team-leading 34 steals. He's joined in double figures by Jadon Cool at 13.6 PPG on .404/.319/.761 shooting with a team-leading 38 three-pointers along with 36 assists and 19 steals and seven blocks. Mack Keighran round out the leading trio at 11.7 PPG on .419/.384/.831 shooting and is tops on the team with 46 assists while adding 14 steals.
 
Blessing Adesipe averages 7.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per game and leads the Eagles with eight blocks while shooting .410 from the floor and .394 from three. Luka Djurovic leads the team in rebounding at 6.7 RPG while adding 7.4 PPG on .395 shooting while Zach Smith is good for 7.2 PPG on .426 shooting with 42 assists and 20 steals.
 
For the season, Chadron State is scoring 72.2 PPG and is -11.0 in scoring margin. They've shot .421/.324/.768 this season against .470/.375/.744 by opponents and are -5.5 in rebounding margin at 32.0 RPG. CSC dishes out 11.0 assists per game and turns the ball over 12.5 times per game, finding themselves -1.1 in TO margin and scoring 11.7 points off turnovers per game. Defensively, the Eagles average 6.5 steals and 2.1 blocks per game.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Mines leads the all-time series with Black Hills state 18-13 but is just 6-4 when playing in Spearfish. Last season, the teams met twice in Golden and saw the Orediggers win the regular season matchup 87-77 before posting a 77-64 win in the RMAC Tournament. The team last played in Spearfish in December of 2023 which resulted in an 82-72 Mines win. BHSU's last win came in the return trip to Golden that season as they won 86-83 on a buzzer-beater by Matthew Ragsdale.
 
Mines made it 33 in a row against Chadron state bac on January 8 with a 74-60 win in Golden to improve to 50-44 in the series. Chadron has been a tricky place to play historically as the Orediggers are just 22-29 as the visitors. The last trip to Chadron in the 2024-25 season resulted in a 76-61 Mines win. CSC's last win in the series came at home all the way back in 2008 when they posted a 76-74 victory.
 
LOOKING AHEAD
Mines ends the regular season with three of four at home starting next weekend against UCCS on February 19 before welcoming CSU Pueblo for a February 21 matchup. Thursday's game against UCCS will be the annual Rock The Lock game, while Mines basketball will welcome back their alumni Saturday against CSUP.
 
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.