GOLDEN, Colo. — Walk in the backside of the Student Recreation Center and the beautiful Lockridge Arena is up a flight of stairs on the second level.
A stroll through the front side of the Maple Street pedestrian corridor will take basketball fans past a recreational climbing wall, modernized weight room and fitness center, and even a rec basketball gym before entering the 3,000-seat Lockridge Arena on the first level.
So it goes on the sloping, Colorado School of Mines campus that is nestled in the valley of Golden along the foothills where some of the sweetest basketball in the state is played.
Known as an acclaimed engineering school, the Mines’ Orediggers also have a Division II basketball powerhouse that won its 20th game in a row Friday night with a 100-73 victory against New Mexico Highlands.
Again, that’s 20 in a row.
“We’re sneaky good athletes,’’ said Mines head coach Pryor Orser. “And we play well with each other. We pass the ball pretty well. We do it with team basketball and passing and going through the post. That’s how we do it here.’’
The win clinched a share of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title for Mines and the No. 1 seed in the conference. With four regular-season conference games remaining, the Orediggers – 18-0 in the conference and 21-3 overall – can clinch the regular-season title outright tonight with a win against CSU-Pueblo, which is just 4-13 in the conference.
Mines may be Division II but it’s a first-class operation. The Lockridge Arena scoreboard keeps up-to-the-second track of each player’s fouls and points – just like in the big leagues. The floor is impeccably shined, the bright blue bleachers may not have a scuff mark.
School pride is evident from President Paul Johnson and athletic director David Hansburg among those in attendance Friday night to the school band, cheerleaders and dance team that perform during the game.
Mines' success in all its sports – its football team went 10-2 in the fall – begins with coaching. Orser, a fair basketball player himself in the late 1980s at Montana State-Billings, is in his 18th season as head of the Mines’ basketball program and has compiled an overall record of 335-185. (An average record of 19-10).
His current team’s success is a continuation of a program that reached the NCAA Division II Elite Eight tournament in Sioux Falls just two years ago and finished 30-5.
How does the Mines team of 2017 compare to the Orediggers of 2019?
“A lot of similar traits, but I think this team spreads the ball around a little more,’’ said senior guard Ben Sonnefeld, who is clearly the glue to the current Orediggers. “I think we have more weapons than that team did. We were all capable scorers [in 2016-17] but we all knew who our guys were with that team and we relied on them and they always played well and that’s how we were successful. But this year, whoever’s hot on any given night will take over.’’
Check out the boxscore from the win Friday. Despite hitting the century mark – reached when Ben Boone, a freshman from Grandview High School in Centennial, nailed a 3-pointer as the shot clock and game clock were ticking down -- not one Mines player scored 20 points.
Three players did score 19 – sophomore forward Michael Glen, senior center Ben Clare and sophomore super-sub guard Joe Miks – while the point guard Sonnefeld added 17 with a team-high 8 rebounds and Mason Baker, a redshirt sophomore who has been the team’s season-long leading scorer, added 16 with a team-most 9 assists.
All this against a New Mexico Highlands team that is no pushover at 16-8. It boasts Raquan Mitchell, who transferred a year ago from Colorado State, and Gerad Davis, a transfer from Northern Colorado.
Mitchell had 18 points with minutes remaining in the first half before settling for 26. Davis was held to 15. Patrik Boloz, a 7-foot-3 center from Slovakia, had three blocks but only 6 points and five rebounds.
The 6-foot-7 Glen, the pride of Basalt, had to guard them all at one time or another.
“Each person is a new mentality for me,’’ Glen said. “Just have to remember what the scout is and play to their weaknesses.’’
Mines is more than a bunch of overachieving brainiacs. They’re smart players, sure, but they’re pregame dunk drill – where a group of 6-foot-3 to 6-foot-8 high flyers put on an exhibition of twisting, rim-bending magic – is worth the price of admission.
And these guys can shoot – Mines connected on 58 percent of their shots; 59 percent (13 of 22) from beyond the 3-point arc. No one holds the ball for long as they had 27 assists. And though they’re not a big team, Mines outrebounded Highlands, 39-25.
“I think the key is being unselfish as a team,’’ Sonnefeld said. “We take pride in that.’’
“I like the team, we’re young,’’ Orser said. “Of the 11 kids we’re playing, we have five freshmen, three sophomores, a walk-on junior and two seniors. And the two seniors (Sonnefeld and Clare) are unbelievable. I mean those kids are really good players.’’
In the night’s opener, the Mines women’s team beat New Mexico Highlands, 71-59. Super sub Cassidy Budge, a senior guard from Colorado Springs Rampart High School, led the Orediggers with 21 points – all in the second half as she hit seven consecutive 3-point shots to hold off any threat of an NM Highlands rally.
“It was a fun game,’’ Budge said. “We knew we had to come out strong because New Mexico Highlands is a scrappy team. In the first half, we struggled to put the ball in the basket. They came out harder than we expected.
“The second half we knew how to work that zone. We had someone in the middle to get those inside-out shots, so we were able to get open on the outside. Once we did that, then the inside was more open.’’
Courtney Stanton, a sophomore center from Colorado Springs Pine Creek, added 16 points for 15-8 Mines and Denali Pinto, a freshman guard from Boulder Fairview, had 13 of her 15 points in the first half. Nicole Archambeau, a senior with an aggressive playing style, had a team-high 12 rebounds and five assists.
But it was Budge’s sharp-shooting from downtown that stole the show. What’s it feel like to be in such a groove?
“I know it’s going in, put it that way,’’ Budge said. “The biggest thing for me is getting it high and making sure I follow through. I was struggling with that in the first half.’’
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