Spearfish, S.D. – The Black Hills State men's basketball team scored a season-high 95 points in the 95-80 win over non-conference opponent Dickinson State for BHSU's first win of the season on Monday night.

Joey Mitchell scored 18 of his 22 points in the first half to lead the Yellow Jackets. Tanner Adler was not far behind with 20 points. The Yellow Jackets had four players in double-digit scoring including Austin Maag with 14 and Brody Brisk with 10. Brady Bisgaard distributed the ball with a team-high 10 assists on the night.  

"Joey is that type of player, he has been good for us and he is starting to become consistent scoring in double figures every night," said head coach Bradd Schafer.  "That is what we needed. Obviously, Tanner is going to do well and for us we need some other guys to step up and I thought we did that at times."

The Yellow Jackets shot a season-high 58.9 percent from the field (33-of-56) and 57.1 percent (8-of-14) from behind the arc. The Yellow Jackets out rebounded the Blue Hawks 38 to 25. Maag led the Jackets with five rebounds.

The Yellow Jackets recorded 19 turnovers on the night.

"We did a great job tonight making shots and our biggest thing is we got a little sloppy at times taking care of the ball," said Schafer. "It is amazing we still had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio with 19 turnovers tonight. We have to do a better job taking care of the ball."

The Yellow Jackets scored the first seven point of the game, but the Blue Hawks cut the lead to 11-8 with 14:21 remaining. BHSU went back-and-forth with Dickinson, but the Blue Hawks couldn't find an answer for Mitchell who didn't miss a shot in the first half. Mitchell scored 18 points on 6-of-6 from the field, including four 3-pointers and 2-of-2 from the free-throw line. Adler added 12 points and the Yellow Jackets led 48-32 going into halftime.

The Yellow Jackets shot an impressive 65.4 percent in the first half and held the Blue Hawks to 35.5 percent from the field.

BHSU continued its momentum into the second half as they went on a 13-3 run to start the half. The Yellow Jackets were able to keep a substantial lead throughout the second half as they led 74-57 with 9:50 remaining. All 12 players on the Yellow Jackets' roster entered the game.  The Blue Hawks brought the game within 15, but that was as close they would get as the BHSU ran away with the 95-80 victory.

"I thought at times we were kind of in-and-out tonight," said Schafer. "We are still looking for that 40-minute basketball game."

The Yellow Jackets will take on Western State on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in the Donald E. Young Center.

"For us, there is no better way to start RMAC play and our first RMAC weekend. It is about taking care of business at home against good teams," said Schafer.