Mines (11-12, 7-5 RMAC) vs. Western Colorado (6-14, 4-8 RMAC) – Thursday, 7:30 p.m. – Golden, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network PPV] [Tickets]
Mines (11-12, 7-5 RMAC) vs. Westminster (8-12, 3-9 RMAC) – Saturday, 3 p.m. – Golden, Colo. [Live Stats] [RMAC Network PPV] [Tickets]

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STRETCH RUN
As the calendar turns to February, just eight games remain the regular season for the Colorado School of Mines men's basketball team as they'll look to continue their strong season within the confines of Lockridge Arena when they welcome Western Colorado and Westminster for action on Thursday night and Saturday afternoon.

LIVE COVERAGE
This week's games will be available for purchase on the RMAC Network with Miles Dunklin back on the call. Free live stats will be available as well. Links for video and stats can be found on minesathletics.com.
 
FAN ADVISORY
For those planning to attend Saturday's basketball games against Westminster, please keep in mind the annual Goldens In Golden event will be taking place from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. in downtown. While on-campus parking is not expected to be impacted by the event, for travel considerations fans are encouraged to avoid the downtown area and instead arrive on campus from the west using Highway 6 to 19th Street before turning onto Elm Street upon arrival on campus. For more information about Goldens In Golden, please click here.
 
GREEN GAME
Saturday marks Mines' second annual Green Game. The event calls for all fans to join both Oredigger squads and staff in wearing green and to consider a donation to the Student Emergency Fund. Green is not one of Mines' official colors, but it's a special occasion. The games against Westminster will honor Head Coach Brittany Simpson's late sister Annie who tragically passed away nearly two years ago. Annie's favorite color was green and she dedicated her life to those in the midst of emergencies. Any amount and any shade of green would be extremely meaningful to Coach Simpson, her family, and the memory of Annie. Click here for more information on the Mines Student Emergency Fund.
 
RMAC NETWORK CHANGES
As was announced on June 30, 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 485-244 overall and a mark of 342-162 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 12 RECAP
Mines came out on the short end of the result in both their road games to end January, dropping a 78-70 decision to Fort Lewis before being bested Saturday 96-78 by Adams State. Thursday night was a battle against the Skyhawks as Jonathan Moore led the charge behind his first career double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Alex Romack recorded another double-double as well with 16 and 10 while Shelton Henton scored 12. Against the Grizzlies Moore once again led the way as one of four in double figures with 21 points followed by Henton with 15 while Romack and Cooper Mroczek each added 10.
 
RMAC RESET
Fort Lewis remains the team to beat entering the final month of the season as they continue to lead the RMAC with a 12-0 mark and hold a two-game lead over Black Hills State at 10-2. Colorado Mesa is solidly in third at 9-3 as things get decidedly more crowded from fourth one back. Adams State is now alone in fourth at 8-5 after knocking off New Mexico Highlands Tuesday ahead of CSU Pueblo and Mines in fifth at 7-5. NMHU is next at 7-6 followed by UCCS and South Dakota Mines at 6-6. MSU Denver is still in the mix at 5-7 ahead of Colorado Christian and Western Colorado at 4-8. Westminster and Chadron State are further back still at 3-9 while Regis dropped to 0-12 in league action last weekend. With the top eight set to qualify for the RMAC Tournament, the race for the final postseason spots will make the midfield battle one to watch over the next four weeks.
 
HOME SWEET HOME
Mines has made the most playing at Lockridge Arena this season and with five of eight at home to end the regular season, will look to keep that momentum going as they look to lock up a spot in the RMAC Tournament. In eight home games this season, the Orediggers are 7-1 and average 84.8 PPG while in their 15 dates away from Golden are 4-11 including 3-7 in true road games and average almost a full 10 points less per game at 74.9 PPG even with a pair of 100-point performances. Home court advantage is a serious thing for the Orediggers, who since the 2020-21 season have gone 65-11 (.855) as they'll look to continue that success in the month of February.
 
BURN THAT SHIRT (FOR NOW)
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 six games. He's averaging 10.9 PPG at the moment and is shooting .485 from the floor and .400 from deep with nine steals and four assists in just about 20 minutes a night off the bench. Given new redshirt rules across Division II this season, Lehman is rapidly approaching the cutoff for being able to retain this season, but given his performance since the start of the year, he's seemingly launched himself into the conversation to be a rotation regular for the rest of the season, even if Markus Pastorcic-Straun is able to return from injury before season's end.
 
DOUBLE-DOUBLE MACHINE
Alex Romack's double-double streak came to an end last Thursday at Regis as he scored just six points while hauling in 11 rebounds, but came right back Saturday with perhaps the start of a new streak as he went for 13 and 11 in his 13th double-double of the season. 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. 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. Now having accomplished the feat 20 times in his career, Romack will look to continue to cement his place as one of the top post players in school history with his prolific ability to score and clean up the glass.
 
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 93 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 29 and 20 blocks respectively. Moore ranks second in the RMAC in rejections, with Romack close behind in a tie for sixth. Will Cordonnier and Derek Lamb have also led things defensively inside off the bench with nine and eight blocks respectively. In fact, 11 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 212 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 59. In fact, Henton ranks second in the RMAC in three-pointers while his .437 shooting rate from deep is good for sixth. Jonathan Moore follows with 32 ahead of Kellon Johnson with 22 while Kasen Lehman and Braydon Jacob each have 20. Markus Pastorcic-Straun had 16 triples before his injury while Cooper Mroczek has 18 and Will Cordonnier has 12. If Mines wants to make keep noise in the second half of the season in the RMAC, they'll need to keep up their three-point shooting prowess over the final month of the season.
 
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 23 games, the Orediggers lead the RMAC with 867 total rebounds and are fourth in rebounding average at 38.7. They also lead the RMAC with 307 offensive rebounds and are second in the RMAC with 13.3 offensive boards per game. In fact, just 10 teams nationally have more total offensive rebounds than Mines, who ranks in the top 30 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 13.2 PPG with 9.1 RPG along with 49 assists, 26 steals and 20 blocks while shooting .536 on the season. Jonathan Moore follows behind at 12.8 PPG and 6.0 RPG with 29 blocks and 11 steals while shooting .493/.478/.887 with 32 three-pointers. Kasen Lehman remains a force as he'll look to bounce back after being shutout for the first time in his career and is scoring 10.9 PPG on .485 shooting from the floor and .400 from three with 20 triples in eight games while adding nine steals defensively. Shelton Henton rounds out four in double figures at 10.3 PPG and has emerged as one of the top sharpshooters in the RMAC with 59 three pointers backing a .429/.437/.839 line in addition to 41 dimes and 16 steals.
 
Kellon Johnson remains consistent at 7.5 PPG and is shooting .451 from the floor with 40 assists and 19 steals, while Cooper Mroczek has seen a resurgence in recent weeks and is averaging 5.8 PPG on .430 shooting with 18 triples. Trent minter meanwhile is averaging 5.1 PPG and 4.1 RPG with a team-best 76 assists to go with 20 steals and eight blocks while shooting .404 on the year.
 
On the year, the Orediggers average 78.3 PPG and are +2.4 in scoring margin while shooting .446/.350/.700 compared to .457/.330/.711 by opponents. They average 37.7 RPG and are +3.7 in rebounding margin while dishing out 16.6 assists per game. The turnover battle has been a constant challenge, as Mines enters the week coughing it up 13.4 times per night and is -2.3 in TO margin while scoring 12.0 PPG off turnovers. Defensively, the Orediggers pocket 6.9 steals and 4.0 blocks per game.
 
SCOUTING WESTERN COLORADO
Western Colorado enters the week on a three-game skid following 93-82 and 79-68 losses to UCCS and Colorado Christian, and are just 1-8 since the new year. WCU had also struggled on the road this season, going 3-7 away from Gunnison and 2-6 in true road games.
 
The RMAC's leading scorer this season resides in Gunnison as Fort Hays State transfer Aidan McDowell has taken the league by storm. The five-time RMAC Player of the Week this season is averaging 27.7 PPG and leads WCU in field goals (171), three-pointers (69) and free throws (143) while tying for the team lead in rebounding average at 5.2 to go with 33 assists and 11 steals while shooting .480/.288/.911. To put in perspective how much McDowell has meant to the Mountaineers, he's made 68 more shots, 44 more three-pointers and 113 more three-pointers than the next closest players in each category and accounts for more than 37% percent of the points scored by WCU this season.
 
Tyler Halligan has been the #2 option this season, scoring 12.9 PPG with 5.2 RPG, 44 assists, 17 steals and 10 blocks while shooting .433 from the floor. Jordan Kuac rounds out the top three in the rotation at 9.9 PPG and 4.8 PPG with 29 assists, 13 steals and 13 blocks to go with a .404 shooting percentage.
 
Production falls off steeply beyond those three as Quincy Scott leads the rest of the roster at 6.9 PPG on .426 shooting with 32 assists and 13 steals coming off the bench most of the year. Mason Mottashed averages 5.6 PPG on .413/.345/.788 shooting but has been the top facilitator on the team with 75 assists. Joanis Koulisianis averages 5.0 PPG and 4.0 RPG and leads the way with 20 blocks while shooting .611 from the floor. The rest of the rotation comprised of Reese Strawn, Dawlton Grant and David Sheila all average between 1.2 and 2.4 PPG.
 
As a team, Western Colorado averages 74.5 PPG and is -8.0 in scoring average. They've shot .455/.352/.762 this season compared to .484/.379/.673 by opponents and are -1.7 in rebounding margin at 33.2 RPG. WCU dishes out 14.3 assists per game and turns it over at a clip of 15.3 times per night for a -5.0 TO ratio while scoring 11.3 PPG off turnovers. Defensively, the average 4.5 steals and 3.0 blocks per game.
 
SCOUTING WESTMINSTER
Westminster snapped a three-game losing streak with a 79-71 win over CSU Pueblo Saturday to close out a five-game stretch of games at the Behnken Field House. They'll end the year with five of eight on the road starting Thursday against Regis as they look to change their fortunes away from home as they've going 1-6 outside Salt Lake City this season. Since their win over the Orediggers in December, the Griffins have gone 2-9 in their last 11 games with their only other win coming at the start of their five-game home stand over Western Colorado 79-62.
 
Three players lead the way offensively for the Griffins headed by Colin Hayes at 12.3 PPG on .493 shooting with 21 assists and 16 steals. Michael Frazier follows close behind at 12.3 PPG and is second in rebounding at 6.1 RPG while shooting .482. Cole Kaodguchi has been the primary three-point threat this season on his way to 10.6 PPG on .424/.427/.826 shooting with 53 treys and is second on the team with 45 assists. Jake Naubauld has split time as a starter and a reserve this season and leads WU with 76 dimes and 29 steals while scoring 8.6 PPG on .476 shooting.
 
Boston Painter leads the second unit with 7.0 PPG on .570 shooting with a team-leading 12 blocked shots while Jack Jamele nets 6.4 PPG on .522 shooting. Jonah El-Farra leads in rebounding ag 6.2 RPG to go with 5.6 PPG on .567 shooting while Mitch Jeppesen (5.3 PPG, .476 FG%, 12 STL) and Tommy Ball (4.8 PPG, 25 3FG, 15 STL) are also ones to watch.
 
On the season, Westminster averages 79.3 PPG and is +6.1 in scoring margin, though against NCAA competition their scoring average is a full 6.0 PPG lower at 73.3 and their scoring margin shifts to -2.0. They've shot .464/.372/.672 as a team compared to .419/.349/.732 by opponents and average 38.4 RPG for a +5.4 margin. They average nearly 17 assists per game and commit 13.3 turnovers per game for a +1.3 margin, which shifts to 13.9 and -1.2 against NCAA competition while scoring 15.8 PPG off turnovers. Defensively WU averages 7.1 steals and 2.5 blocks per game.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Mines is still chasing their way back to .500 in the all-time series with the Mountaineers, who lead 99-92 though the Orediggers enter Thursday night winners of the last six. Last year in the lone meeting of the season in Gunnison, Mines posted a 68-56 win. The last time the teams played in Golden was on January 26, 2024 which saw a 77-72 Oredigger victory to improve to 55-38 all-time at home. Western Colorado's last win in the series came in Gunnison all the way back in 2021 by a score of 83-78. To find the last WCU win in Golden, one has to go all the way back to 2007 to find a 66-61 result. Since then Mines has gone 13-0 when playing in the 303.
 
December's 17-point loss to Westminster evened the all-time series between the Griffons and Orediggers at 30-30. Much like how WU holds an edge in their gym, Mines is 18-9 when playing in Golden which saw an 85-64 win in the most recent bout in Lockridge Arena last season. The Griffons last win in Golden came all the way back in 2018 by a score of 78-73, since which the Orediggers are 7-3.
 
LOOKING AHEAD
Another tough road trip awaits the Orediggers as they travel to Black Hills State on February 12 and Chadron State on February 14 in their final full weekend away from home this season.
 
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.