DENVER, Colo. – It was a Thursday night thriller at the Auraria Event Center as the Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team closed out the regular season with a 94-91 win over MSU Denver. After trailing the Roadrunners (9-18, 7-12) by four at the break, the Orediggers (16-15, 12-8) got one of their highest-scoring halves of the season over the final 20 minutes powered by Jonathan Moore before getting a clutch defensive stop on the final play of the game by Kellon Johnson to secure the win.
 
The back-and-forth battle started early on as Mines scored first and led for the first six-plus minutes as a pair of Shelton Henton three-pointers got the offense rolling early. Logan Threatt's layup following by an Amare Bethel three tied the game at 14-14 before the Roadrunners took the lead for the first time at 18-17 following a pair of buckets from Quave Propst-Allison. Johnson came right back with a top of the arc three at 11:18 to retake a two-point lead as the two teams continued to slug it out in a physical opening half that saw both side in the bonus for the better part of the final 10 minutes. After two Romack free throws, four in a row from MSUD saw them retake the lead 26-22 with 7:44 in the opening period. That advantage held for the next two minutes until Silas McCurnin splashed a timely corner three-pointer to make it 30-29 Orediggers. After Threatt and Johnson traded free throws, Propst-Allison knocked down a three to make it 34-32 before Johnson came back with a driving layup to keep pace. The Roadrunners did end the half with momentum as they went on a 7-3 run over the last 3:21 and forced two Mines turnovers to lead 41-37 at halftime.
 
Brian Unachukwu's layup to open the frame gave MSU Denver the largest lead of the game to that point with a six-point edge as play resumed. The Mines freshman trio of Johnson, Henton and Trent Minter then scored the next seven as the lead changed hands against 44-43. The lead changed hands three times over the next seven possessions as the Roadrunners came out ahead on the exchange 50-48 after a layup from Threatt. Eight of the next nine possessions resulted in points as Johnson, Moore and Romack will Mines back in front 60-58 with 12:41 to go. Just over a minute later two more lead changes took place as a layup by Bethel was answered with a three from Moore before Will Cordonnier hit from downtown to make it 68-64. Four straight free throws from Moore saw the Mines lead move to eight at 72-64. The Roadrunners stormed back within three after a steal-and-score dunk from Threatt, but two more free throws from Moore and a bank three-pointer from Henton with the shot clock winding down helped maintain the lead at 77-71.
 
With momentum building in their favor down the stretch, Mines managed to push their lead to 11 with seven straight from Johnson, Moore and Romack to take a 90-79 lead with 2:23 left. Unfazed, the Roadrunners stormed right back as an 8-0 run closed the gap right back to 90-87 after a three-point play by Daniel Thomason. A layup from Henton with 47 seconds left made it five-point lead, but back-to-back MSUD dunks with the second off a turnover made it a 92-91 game with 21 seconds remaining. On the ensuing inbounds play, Moore was fouled and went to the line where he converted both free throws to make it a three-point game at 94-91 with 18 seconds left. MSU Denver then raced down the court looking for a quick basket as a layup by Threatt rimmed off before caroming out of bounds and being ruled out of bounds of the Orediggers. Mines head coach Pryor Orser then called timeout and challenged the ruling on the floor and after a lengthy review, the officials overturned the call on the floor and awarded possession to Mines with 7.2 seconds to go. With the Roadrunners pressing the inbounds, Minter took the short way to Moore who was immediately triple teamed by Unachukwu, Propst-Allison and Thomason in the corner in front of the Roadrunner bench, but did a good job of keeping himself moving before Unachukwu managed to get his hands in for a tie-up to win back possession with 1.2 seconds left for MSU Denver. With a chance to tie on a last-second shot, Thomason inbounded from the baseline trying to find Threatt on the sideline near the scorer's table, but Johnson read the inbounds pass and tipped it up and out of bounds to seemingly end the game as the clock struck zero and lights went on. Following another lengthy review, it was determined that the game clock did not start on time and that from the final touch by Johnson until the ball was whistled dead out of bounds, the final 1.2 seconds had indeed elapsed and the game was over as the Orediggers held on to close out the regular season with the 94-91 win.
 
NOTABLES
-Moore finished tied for the game high with 28 points on 7-15 shooting and set a career-best with a perfect 13-13 night from the free throw line while hauling in seven rebounds and blocking two shots and managing foul trouble as he played the final 6:20 with four personals
-Romack turned in his fourth 20-point outing of the season and third in the last four games as he was a perfect 6-6 from the floor and went 8-12 from the line with five rebounds, four assists, a block and a steal
-Johnson was back in double figures to end the regular season with 17 points on of his best shooting nights of the season, going 6-8 from the floor and tying his season-high by going 3-5 from long range while adding three assists
-Henton also finished with 17 points on 6-10 shooting including five three-pointers while pulling in two rebounds
-Minter scored five points with five assists and three rebounds with a block and a steal defensively
-Cordonnier added four points and four rebounds off the bench
-Mines shot an eye-popping 18-28 (.643) from the floor in the second half including 7-14 (.500) from three and 14-17 (.824) from the free throw line
-Despite turning the ball over 15 times, the Orediggers limited MSU Denver to just 14 points off turnovers
-Thursday's game featured 16 ties and 14 lead changes
-Mines has now won 15 in a row against MSU Denver to improve to 53-36 all-time and 21-18 on the road; in their last three games at the Auraria Event Center, the Orediggers have won by an average margin of 5.7 points
-With their regular season done with a 12-8 record in league play, Mines currently occupies the sixth spot in the standings and will not enter the postseason lower than the #6 seed
 
UP NEXT
The Orediggers will have the weekend off as they watch the final day of the regular season Saturday to determine where they'll be seeded for the upcoming RMAC Men's Basketball Championship next week.

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.