(Spearfish, S.D.) - The Black Hills State University Yellow Jacket women's basketball team fell to the CSU-Pueblo Thunderwolves Saturday night, 70-49, thanks to a strong second half that limited the possessions of the Yellow Jackets.  

From the opening tip, the Yellow Jackets played faster than the night before with tight defensive pressure that forced nine turnovers and seven steals to help keep them within only three-points at halftime.  Sophomore forward, Logan Cowan (6'0 Highmore, S.D.) had a team-high 10 points on 5-for-5 from the field.

Around the 11:00 minute mark of the first half, Coach Mark Nore cranked up the pressure as his Yellow Jackets put on the full-court press and forced a turnover by way of a steal by Chelsey Biegler (Rapid City, S.D.) only to hit a transition three-point shot at the other end to go up 18-17. The defensive traps  helped BHSU hold CSU-Pueblo to 13-of-30 from the field in the first half as BHSU also out rebounded the T'Wolves defensively 12-8.

Later in the first half the Yellow Jacket's run was halted due to half-court traps by CSU-Pueblo which resulted in a few turnovers that led to a quick five point swing with less than two-minutes to play to bring the halftime score to 34-31, CSU-Pueblo.  

CSU-Pueblo's head coach, Kip Brown, commended BHSU's first half defense and what his team did in order to pull out the victory.

"We handled their pressure better in the second half; anytime you can create turnovers and knock down shots, that's a pretty good formula for winning basketball games.  Beigler and Kusser are such outstanding shooters you hope you don't get caught on those and you try to disrupt their rhythm…they are going to be good," Brown said.

The second half began strong for BHSU with the continued pressure defense but coach Brown for CSU-Pueblo said that when they switched to a 1-3-1 zone defense it caused the Yellow Jackets trouble and that is how his team managed to accumulate 23 turnovers by the final whistle.  Eventually, CSU-Pueblo stretched the lead to 51-17 thanks to a 19-2 scoring run by the T'Wolves with 8:22 to play in the game.  BHSU shot 35.8 percent from the field on 19-of-53 while CSU-Pueblo shot 47.2 percent on 25-of-53 from the field.

BHSU will return home next weekend to the Young Center to play host to Regis University (Colo.) and Metro State University.