SALT LAKE CITY – The Westminster men's basketball team opened the new season with a 77-61 loss to Colorado School of Mines in the Behnken Field House on Friday night.
 
Westminster (0-1) falls in the season opener for the first time since the start of the 2001-02 campaign. Colorado Mines, a NCAA D-II team from the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, counted the game as an exhibition.
 
Mines scored the game's first eight points and they would hold the lead until Quincy Bair made a layup at the 9:43 mark of the opening half to give the Griffins a 17-16 lead. The Griffins would extend to their largest lead of the game with 8:19 to play in the half as Jordan Pryor connected on a three to cap a 9-0 run.
 
After the team traded baskets for the next few minutes, Mines closed the final 5:31 of the period with a 14-6 run to take a 33-31 lead into intermission. The Orediggers got six points from Gokul Natesan during the run and they held Westminster to just 3-of-9 shooting.
 
The Griffins largest lead of the second half came at the 9:54 mark after Isaiah Tademy made a pair of free throws to put them on top, 52-48. Mines would then take control of the game with an 18-3 run in which they got six points from Luke Schroepfer and four apiece by Adam Laine and Caleb Waitsman. The Griffins were just 1-of-5 with a pair of turnovers during the six-minute stretch that closed with the visitors leading, 66-55.
 
Westminster finished the game shooting 42.9 percent from the field and they went 7-of-25 from beyond the arc. They allowed Mines to shoot 50.9 percent overall and they outscored the griffins 38-26 in the paint. The visitors also had 20 assists to only 14 turnovers while the Griffins were 11 assists and 18 turnovers.
 
Pryor led all played with 20 points as he finished 6-of-12 from three for his fourth 20-point outing. He finished 7-of-17 overall in the game and grabbed two rebounds with one assist. Nick Jenson added 13 points and seven rebounds while making all six of his shot attempts. William Walker scored 10 points off the bench in his Griffin debut.
 
Mines had four players score in double figures with Waitsman leading the way with 14. Natesan and Laine had 13 apiece and Joe Dellenbach scored 10.
 
The Griffins will remain at home next weekend when they play host to the Westminster Tipoff Classic. They begin the event against Colorado State-Pueblo on Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. MT in the Behnken Field House.