John Murphy CSC SID BOX SCORE
The Chadron State College Eagles couldn’t match the firepower of the Colorado School Of Mines Tuesday night and lost to the Orediggers 87-68 in the quarterfinals of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament in Golden, CO.
The loss ends CSC’s season at 19-10 overall and 16-6 in conference play.
That’s their best season in over two decades with the best winning percentage since 1999-2000, when the team went 19-8 for a winning percentage of .704.
CSC had dropped a narrow 78-74 decision at Mines just 10 days earlier, but the Orediggers were on fire from the start last night as they shot 60% in the first half from the field and 67% from 3-point range as they dominated from the start.
Mines opened with a 15-0 scoring run – all from Adam Thistlewood, a hometown boy and redshirt senior transfer from Colorado State. The Eagles finally got on the scoreboard after Jarrett Taylor was fouled on a 3-pointer and made all 3 shots from the charity stripe.
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Thistlewood scored the next 2 points for a total of 17 straight as the Orediggers extended their opening lead to 22-3 before Taylor added a 3-pointer.
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Chadron State lowered the deficit to 8 with 10:07 remaining in the first half when Isaiah Wyatt drilled a 3-pointer to make the score 26-18, but Mines responded with an 18-9 scoring run.Â
MJ Foust tallied a driving dunk for CSC right before half to send the Eagles to the locker room with a 44-29 deficit, but the Orediggers continued their hot shooting in the second half, extending their lead to as many as 27 with about 5:00 to go.
The Eagles got layups in the final minute from senior Gage Delimont, of Ainsworth, NE, and Patrick McLachlan, a junior of Pittsburgh, PA, to bring the gap under 20.
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The hosts finished 32-60 (53.3%) from the field while making 8 of their 19 attempts from beyond the arc (42.1%), and 15-17 from the charity stripe (88.2 percent).
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CSC finished 23 of 66 (34.8%) from the field, their second-lowest shooting percentage of the season, and made just 7-25 (28%) on 3-pointers. They were 15-21 (71.4%) from the charity stripe.
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The hosts recorded one more rebound than the Eagles, winning that battle 39-38, and they had the edge in turnover. CSC committed 12 that resulted in 15 Oredigger points while scoring just 9 points off Mine’s 11 turnovers.
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Josh Robinson led CSC in scoring with 11 points. Wyatt and McLachlan added 10 apiece. Robinson, Foust, and Thistlewood all tied for game honors in rebounds with 9.
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Thistlewood had a game-high 23 points with teammate Brendan Sullivan adding 21. Sam Beskind had a game high 7 assists for the Orediggers, who are now 25-4 overall and 18-4 in RMAC play.
They head to Grand Junction on Friday to play #1 seed Colorado Mesa in the RMAC Tournament semifinals. The other The other semifinal has Ft Lewis, a 96-89 winner last night over Regis, taking on Black Hills State, who eliminated Westminster 80-69.