LUBBOCK, Texas (November 13, 2021) – Trailing by one at the half, the No. 4 Lubbock Christian University men's basketball team outscored No. 5 Colorado School of Mines 44-27 over the final 20 minutes on the way to a 79-63 win Saturday night at the Rip Griffin Center.
 
The top-ten matchup was about as tense as you would expect in the opening 20 minutes of play. LCU took an early lead on a three-pointer from Parker Hicks and was still up by three at the first media timeout. A three by Trent Dykema for Mines tied the game at 13-all though, and they took the lead a minute later with a jumper from Ben Boone.
 
Mines led by as many as seven, when Dykema hit another three-pointer at the 9:17 mark. The Orediggers shot the ball well in the first half, hitting 48.3 percent of their shots, including 50 percent of their attempts from behind the arc.
 
Still, the Chaps clawed their way back into the game with a pair of baskets by Hicks and a jumper from Lloyd Daniels, but were never able to take the lead thanks to timely shooting by Mines. Even a stretch of five straight made baskets to close out the half couldn't put the Chaps on top, as the Orediggers matched them and took a 36-25 lead into the break.
 
Lubbock Christian scored the first five points of the second half to briefly pull in front, but Mines wouldn't let them put the game out of reach so easily and quickly tied it back up at 40 three minutes in. A quick 8-0 run that featured three-pointers by Hicks and Aamer Muhammad as well as a jumper from Daniels put the Chaps up by as many as nine with 12:29 left, but the Orediggers had cut it back to one just three minutes later.
 
 LCU stayed in front, never by less than five or more than nine all the way until the 4:12 mark, when Muhammad was fouled shooting a three-pointer and cashed in all three shots from the charity stripe to increase the lead to eight points and then hit a jumper out of the media timeout to push it to 10.
 
Daniels put the game out of reach for good and stopped Mines from slowing the game down with fouls by scoring five straight points all by himself and pushing the lead all the way out to 16  points. Benches for both teams emptied at that points and celebrations quickly followed as the game ended with a Chap win.
 
Hicks led the big second half with 14 points in the final 20 minutes, finishing with a team-leading 25 overall. He and Muhammad tied for the team lead in rebounds with seven apiece, while Cameron Copley had a team-high five assists.
 
TURNING POINT
Mines had cut the lead back to just one point with 8:57 to go, when Copley hit a tough layup, and Hicks followed with six straight LCU points to put the Chaps back up by nine with just over six minutes to go. Their lead would never be fewer than five points the rest of the way.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
26 | Jalen Brattain was on the floor for nearly all of the second half and played a career-high 26 minutes overall against the Orediggers
21.4 | After hitting half of their three-point attempts in the opening 21 minutes, Mines went 3-14 from behind the arc (21.4 percent) in the second half
4:12 | The Chaps closed the game on a 14-3 run over the last four minutes and 12 seconds with a Brendan Sullivan three-pointer at the 2:14 mark as the only CSM basket
 
NEXT UP
A huge early-season test awaits the Chaps next, as they play host to West Texas A&M at 7 p.m. on Thursday at the Rip Griffin Center for a nonconference matchup between the two rivals.