Colorado Mines moved within one win of advancing to the NCAA Division II men’s basketball “Elite Eight” for the third time after the Orediggers posted a nail-biting 66-63 victory in Dallas over St. Mary’s of San Antonio, Texas.  READ MORE

With their 29th win in 33 games, the Orediggers meet host Dallas Baptist (32-4) on Tuesday at 6 p.m., with the winner of the South Central Regional advancing to the “Elite Eight” starting March 25 at Evansville, Ind.

Participating in their 14th NCAA Division II Championships, the Orediggers will play in their fourth regional finale.  Mines lost their first bid for the “Elite Eight” in 2012 but were successful in its subsequent two appearances in 2017 and 2021.

With all 14 appearances in the NCAAs under coach Pryor Orser’s leadership, Mines has an 11-12 in the NCAAs (2010-11-12-14-15-16-17-18-19-20-21-23-24-25).  MSU Denver has appeared in eight “Elite Eights” (1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2012, 2013, 2014) and CSU Pueblo once (1972).

In 24 seasons in Golden, Orser has a 474-231 record, the second most in Centennial State men’s coaching history at the 4-year level.  Regis’ Lonnie Porter tops the list with a 538-503 record in 38 seasons (1977-2015) with the Rangers.

In Sunday’s game on the Dallas Baptist floor, Mines led for only 12 minutes, 17 seconds, as the contest featured eight ties and 17 lead changes.  Both schools struggled to score in the last six-plus minutes of the game. The Orediggers made only two of seven shots from the field in the game’s final seven minutes, and St. Mary’s was only three of 14 during this period.

Colorado Mines had a 60-55 lead with 6:35 left in the contest but fell behind 63-62 after a second-chance layup by St. Mary’s Franklin Agu with 2:52 left. Alex Romack’s layup with 31 seconds left gave the Orediggers the lead at 64-63, and Majok Deng made two free throws to finalize the scoring with four seconds remaining.

Romack led the Mines with 17 points (seven of 10 shooting from the field) and 11 rebounds. Deng, who leads the Orediggers in scoring (15.1 points), was held to six points in only 21 minutes of action. Adam Krasovec scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds off the bench for Mines, and Riley Schroeder added 10 points.