GUNNISON, Colo.  The long and the short of it made the difference Saturday evening in Paul Wright Gymnasium as Western Colorado tried to keep up with a solid night from behind the arc, but No. 5 Colorado School of Mines pounded away from in close to finish off a 79-65 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference men's basketball victory over the Mountaineers.

JUST THE FACTS
Final score: Mines def. Western, 79-65
Records: Western 3-13 (1-11 RMAC), Mines 18-1 (12-1)
Location: Paul Wright Gym, Gunnison, Colo.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Western was a persistent pest over much of the opening 20 minutes of action, taking the lead twice while also never letting the highly-ranked Orediggers get too far out in front.
• The Mountaineers were within a point, 22-21, after a Grant Wilkinson layup and minutes later trailed only by three, 29-26, after Kade Juelfs buried a 3-pointer from the left corner.
• Mines responded, though, with an 8-0 run for some breathing room late in the half. The Orediggers would finish the opening period with a short run to head into the halftime break with their largest lead, 43-30.
• The deficit grew to 17 in the early moments of the second half, but another Juelfs trey from the left side after Avery Rembao completed a hard drive down the right side of the lane with a layup, trimmed the gap to only 12.
• Another Oredigger 8-0 run seemed to finally deplete the steam of the little-engine-that-could Mountaineers. Western fell behind by as much as 25 points late in the game before finishing with a 15-4 run that eventually ran out of time.

THE NUMBERS GAME

• Juelfs' five 3-pointers – for a team-high 15 points – were part of nine from long range by Western. Conversely, Mines hit only one of 14 attempts from behind the arc.
•  The 42-36 rebounding advantage Mines finished with didn't make much of a difference as the Orediggers closed with a meaningless 6-4 advantage in second-chance points.
• Turnovers did affect the outcome, though. Western turned the ball over 18 times, from which Mines earned 18 points off those miscues. Though the Orediggers had 12 turnovers themselves, the Mountaineers capitalized for just six points on those.
• Mines was nearly unstoppable from in close, forging a 54-20 gap over Western in points scored within the paint.
• The result of those close-in points was that Mines finished the evening hitting 50 percent of its shots from the floor while Western closed the night at 34%.

NEXT UP
Western is on the road the next two weekends, beginning with Friday-Saturday RMAC battles at Westminster (Utah) College and Colorado Mesa University, respectively.