(Spearfish, S.D.) -- With Friday night's green-out in full force, the Black Hills State University (5-11, 4-8 RMAC) men's basketball team put on a show for their hometown fans that had not seen them play at home since Jan. 5. The Yellow Jackets did not disappoint as they ground out a physical victory over conference foe UC-Colorado Springs (2-14, 2-10 RMAC) by a score of 75-69.

BHSU head coach, Bradd Schafer, was pleased with his team's progression.

"We came out and got rebounds to get second and third chance opportunities to extend possessions… I thought we put together a really good 20-minute half and was just proud of our guys tonight," Schafer said.

The opening tip set the tone as the Yellow Jackets jumped out to an early 10-2 run, fueled by a quick Joey Mitchell (6-1 180, Tulare, S.D.) three-pointer from the top of the arc followed by back to back buckets from standout junior scorer, Tanner Adler (6-5 200, Deadwood, S.D) which included a dribble drive layup and another three-pointer to force a UCCS timeout.

UCCS fought back to later tie the game at 20-20 with 6:03 left in the first half.  From then on out the teams ran the court and traded shots to make for a 31-31 tie at halftime.

BHSU began to take control of the game when a sudden steal off a UCCS inbound pass allowed sophomore guard Brody Brisk (6-4 190, Rapid City, S.D.) threw down a two-handed dunk that sent crowd wild just five minutes into the second half -- BHSU did not look back.

A UCCS technical foul for taunting by junior forward Jordan Carter (6'7 190, Littleton, Colo.) did nothing but help motivate the Yellow jacket players as the half went on as BHSU held a small lead into the closing minutes of the game.

With just over two-minutes to play, BHSU up by five, Mitchell added to the lead with a pair of free throws to help him to a 14-point outing as they hit the bonus.  Brady Bisgaard (5-11 170, Belle Fourche, S.D) added two more free throws to push the lead to 70-63 with just :38 seconds remaining.

A late three pointer by UCCS and another jump shot was all that was left as Bisgaard sealed the deal while finishing 7-of-7 from behind the line to help him to 15 points on five assists and two steals, with a game-high 38 minutes played. 

Bisgaard credited his coaches for pushing the team to focus more and more to close-out tight games down the stretch.

"The second half has been our achilles heel all season, we wanted to make sure that didn't happen tonight," Bisgaard stressed, "We talked about it before the game and at halftime, so we wanted to make sure we put together a full half...we finally did it."

Colorado State-Pueblo (6-11, 5-6 RMAC) comes to town to face the Yellow Jackets Saturday night at 7:30 pm MT in the Young Center.