Mines on the right side of nailbiter

By Brad Blume, South Dakota School of Mines

RAPID CITY —- The South Dakota School of Mines men’s basketball team found itself in yet another nail-biter Saturday night at the King Center in Rapid City, this time facing Dakota Athletic Conference opponent Mayville State.

Unlike Friday night, where the Hardrockers came out on the short end of the stick, Saturday’s contest favored the home team as Mines won the bout, 68-64, and improved their overall record to 7-18 on the season and 4-7 in the DAC.

“It was a pretty intense game from the get go,” said Hardrocker head coach Jason Henry. “We have really resilient kids. That is something that coach (Hugh) Welsh told me when I first started here. They always seem to have the ability to bounce back.”

Friday’s game against Dakota State had the Hardrockers shooting a three-pointer at the buzzer that was initially called good —- which would have given the Hardrockers the win —-  but the basket was waved off leaving SDM with a tough-to-swallow two-point defeat.

Saturday’s game was too close to call until the waning seconds. Mayville had a one-point edge at the half, 37-36, and then opened up a 10-point advantage midway through the second half. The Hardrockers used some impressive defense to hold the Comets in check while the offense went to work with a high-low game-plan to catch and overtake their opponents.

“We did what we needed to do, Henry said.

“It was more of a defensive effort than anything. We buckled down and (assistant) coach Eric Glenn had a good game plan going in for us.”

Mines freshman Michael Ross iced the game with five seconds to go when he made good on two free throws to give the Hardrockers a four-point lead and the eventual score. Ross led the home team in scoring with 16 points and was 8-of-8 from the free throw line.

Teammate Robbie Fedor, a sophomore, also had an excellent offensive effort, dropping in 14 points.

“It was great to see Robbie do so well out there tonight,” Henry said. “He wants to do so well every night but he puts so much pressure on himself. He just kind of relaxed tonight and played his game.”

Freshmen Brent Cass had 11 points in the contest and fellow freshman A.J. Trennepohl contributed with 10 markers.

For the Comets, Ron Dunlap put up 20 points, followed by 13 from Marques Benjamin and 10 points from Tremel Gilot.

The Hardrockers have just three games remaining on the regular season —- all on the road. They travel to Jamestown College and Valley City next weekend and then finish with a rivalry game at Black Hills State.