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GOLDEN – Coming next season: Mountain Lions, the next generation. And University of Colorado at Colorado Springs fans got an exclusive sneak preview Friday evening at Lockridge Arena.

Behind 28 points by Nic Fuller and 25 by Jordan McClung, UCCS won its second straight game with a 99-90 victory over the Colorado School of Mines Orediggers.

Eric Davis added 18 points for the Mountain Lions (9-16, 5-12 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference), while Leo Thomas had 10. Davis and Abram Ziemer each had seven rebounds and McClung had five assists.

UCCS coach Russ Caton started three freshmen, McClung, Ziemer and Fernandez and continued to employ the warp-speed offense that he unveiled two weeks ago.

Kyle Pape led Colorado Mines (13-13, 6-10 RMAC) with 29 points, seven assists and four steals.

The Mountain Lions made nine first-half 3-pointers, including seven of their first 10 to forge a 35-15 lead over the game’s first 11 minutes. The advantage got as high as 22 before a series of unfortunate events resulted in three turnovers and five fouls over the final two minutes of the half. With that help, Mines was able to whittle the lead down to 51-37 at the intermission.

The malaise at the close of the half continued into the next as Mines doggedly came back. Kyle Pape’s steal and jumper with 13:31 remaining in the game close the gap to 58-54.

At that point, the game got a case of the runs. Davis had six points as UCCS answered with a 15-5 run. The Orediggers then had a run of their own as Grant Gunhus had nine points during 15-4 stretch that made it 77-74.

On it went. UCCS scored the next eight, after which Mines registered nine in a row. But in cases like this, he who runs last runs best – and UCCS had the final run.

McClung hit two free throws with 3:31 remaining and 39 seconds later Fuller hit a pull-up jumper. After Mines got two free throws from Chad Friehauf, Kyle Perkins bulled inside for a layup and McClung hit two more free throws. Suddenly, UCCS was up 94-85 with just 36 seconds left.

--This story was sent to FOX 21 News as a general press release from the Athletic Departments of their respective institutions--