CSC Men Top SD Mines 76-70

By Con Marshall BOX SCORE

South Dakota Mines led for the first three minutes, but Chadron State led the rest of the way to win their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference men’s basketball game 76-70 Saturday afternoon in Chadron.
             
The Eagles led 38-30 at halftime and built the difference to 16 points at 57-41 with 11:48 left in the game before Mines began pecking away.

The Hardrockers closed the gap to 70-65 with 1:32  remaining, but over the next minute CSC’s Bryce Laitimer sank a pair of free shots and teammate Julio Phipps added a dunk to put the lead back up to 9 points.
             
Neither team shot particularly well from the field – both around 40% – and each sank eight 3-pointers, but the Eagles often used their quickness to take the ball to the basket and drew 7 more fouls. That helped them outscore the Hardrockers 18-to-6 at the charity stripe for one of the deciding factors in the game.
             
Latimer almost had a triple-double, finishing with 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 8 assists. Fellow senior Josh Robinson added16 points and another 10 rebounds while juniors Dalton Peterson and Raul Nunez each had 14 points and sank 3 treys for the Eagles. 
             
Mines was led by 6-foot-6 senior Keagan Smith with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Senior guard Alejandro Rama hit five 3-pointers while tallying 22 points.  Cameron Cohan added 16 points for the visitors, but only 3 more Hardrockers scored and none had more than 4 points
             
The Eagles are now 11-9 overall and 8-6 in the RMAC.  Mines is 9-11 and 7-7. The teams will meet again in Rapid City on March 1.
 
Next up, the Eagles will play at Colorado Christian in Lakewood on Wednesday, Feb. 7 and at Western Colorado in Gunnison on Friday. Feb. 9.  They’ll be at home again the following two weekends. 
              
South Dakota Mines—Keegan Smith 24, Alejandro Rama 22, Cameron Cohn 16, Guillem Garcia 4, Kolton Frugoli 2, Guido Wanschelbaum 2. Totals: 28-78 (8-31) 6-14 70 points, 41 rebounds, 9 turnovers, 17 assists.
             
Chadron State—Bryce Latimer 17, Josh Robinson 16, Dalton Peterson 14, Raul Nunez 14, Jalen Patterson 4, Martin Poznanovic 4, Caden Schlafani 3, Julio Phipps 2, Porter Anderson 2. Totals: 25-60 (8-20) 18-23 76 points, 46 rebounds, 14 turnovers, 18 assists.  
              South Dakota Mines         30          40          —-70
              Chadron State                    38          38          —-76
              3-pointers: SDM—Rama 5, Cohn 2, Smith 1. CSC—Peterson 3, Nunez 3, Latimer 1, Sclafani 1