PUEBLO, Colo. – Colorado State University Pueblo men's basketball closed out its 2024-25 campaign here Saturday evening as they suffered a heartbreaking 76-71 setback to No. 5 ranked Colorado School of Mines on Senior Night at Massari Arena.
 
With the setback, the ThunderWolves closed the season with a 12-16 overall record and a 7-13 mark in the RMAC, while Mines improved to 24-4 overall and 18-2 in the league. The Pack finished the season in a three-way tie for 10th place in the RMAC standings.
 
The Pack, who went 9-6 at home this season, opened the season by winning eight of its first 10 games and three of its first RMAC games but finished the season by winning just four of its last 14 games, including posting a 4-12 record in the 2025 calendar year.
 
Before the start of Saturday's season finale, the Pack honored its three-member senior class in a pregame ceremony as this year's seniors were forward De'Shaun Cooper (San Diego, Calif./Balboa School), guard Armon Muldrew (Perris, Calif./San Bernardino Valley) and guard Brevin Walter (Las Vegas, Nev./South Dakota Mines).
 
Saturday's game was a rematch from earlier this season as Mines rolled to a 96-75 win in Golden, Colo., on Jan. 16. But, in the rematch, the Pack had the game within one possession after junior forward Victor Lado (Louisville, Ky./Vincennes University) made 1-of-2 free throws with three seconds left in the game.
 
Lado led the way offensively for the Pack as he scored a game-high 22 points and added a career-high tying nine rebounds. In addition to Lado, Muldrew scored 16 points and added three assists and three steals in his final collegiate game, while Cooper finished with nine points and six rebounds. With his nine points, he pushed his career scoring total to 1,076 points, which is 21st on the school's all-time scoring chart.
 
Over his last six games to close the season, Lado averaged 14.5 points and 3.8 rebounds per game and shot 62 percent from the field, 70 percent from the 3-point line, and 82 percent at the free throw line and scored in double figures in four straight games.
 
Walter, who also played his final collegiate game on Saturday, finished with seven points to push his career scoring total to 2,041 points, which is fourth among active Division II players.
 
In Saturday's game, the Pack won the turnover (12-8) battle as they forced Mines into 12 turnovers that led to 15 points and they also made nine treys to eight for Mines, but Mines held a 37-29 edge on the boards, including collecting nine offensive boards that led to 12-5 edge on second chance points.
 
Mines, who led 32-29 at the half, opened the second half on an 11-5 run to turn a 3-point lead into a 43-34 margin just two-plus minutes into the half. The Pack, though, responded with a 15-7 run keyed by three consecutive treys from junior guard Kesan Bazile (Victorville, Calif./West Hills Lemoore) and Muldrew, who hit two of those treys to pull the Pack within a point at 50-49 with 13:15 left in the game.
 
Mines responded with a 15-6 run over the next eight minutes to push out to a 65-55 lead with 5:57 left in the game. The 10 point lead was the largest of the game for the Orediggers, who claimed the regular season RMAC title this season.
 
The Pack wouldn't go away without a fight as Muldrew drilled a trey with 5:47 left in the jump to jump start a 12-7 run to cut Mines' lead to 72-67 with 2:05 left in the game. The run that began with Muldrew's trey was capped by a thunderous dunk off a steal at midcourt.
 
On the Orediggers' ensuing possession, Grant Pressly misfired on a three-pointer with 1:31 left, but on the play, the Pack failed to collect the rebound that was hauled in by Cade Mankle, and the rebound led to a second-chance basket by Markus Pastorcic-Straun to give Mines a 74-67 lead with 1:17 remaining.
 
Muldrew, though, came right now court and connected on another trey with 47 seconds left to pull the Pack within 74-70.
 
After Mankle missed on a 1-and-1 free throw with 10 seconds left, the Pack got the ball downcourt and Lado drew a foul. He stepped to the line with three seconds left and hit 1-of-2 free throws to pull the Pack within 74-71. Majok Deng would cap the scoring with two free throws with seconds left.
 
Riley Schroder paced Mines with 20 points, while Deng added 14 points and Pastorcic-Straun added 11 points.
 
In the first half, the Pack jumped out a 7-2 early lead and led 13-6 following a lay-up by Walter with 14:06 left in the half, before Mines used a 15-2 run to tie the game at 17 with 7:37 left.
 
Copper's dunk with 6:42 left helped the Pack retake the lead at 19-17, the Orediggers responded with a 6-0 run capped by back-to-back treys from Schroeder and Pressly to take a 23-20 lead.
 
The Pack, though, used a trey from Lado and a turnaround jumper by freshman guard Jordan Blair (Keller, Texas/Keller Central) to take a 25-23 lead with 4:30 left in the half. Mines would close out the half by scoring nine of the final 13 points to take its 32-29 halftime lead. The Pack went 2-13 this season when trailing at the half.
 
For the game, the Pack shot 46 percent from the field and 41 percent (9-for-22) from the 3-point line, while Mines shot 51 percent from the floor and 36 percent (8-for-22) from the 3-point line.
 
The Pack had 13 assists and seven steals, while Mines had 19 assists and seven steals. The Orediggers also held a 5-1 advantage in blocked shots.
 
The teams combined to shoot 25 free throws in the game as the Pack was 8-for-11 (72.7 percent) from the line, while Mines was 10-for-14 (71.4 percent) from the line.