SPEARFISH, S.D. - The Black Hills State University women's basketball team (2-4, 1-2 RMAC) and the Colorado Christian Lady Cougars squared off Saturday night where the Jackets broke open a tight game at the halftime to a 12-point win, 66-54. 

Junior guard, Chelsey Biegler, warmed up in the second half with her team's first two 3-point shots of the ballgame two minutes into the half after scoring just two points in the first half alone.  Biegler finished the evening with 17 points to lead her team on 5-of-6 shooting.  Biegler made three 3-point shots and went 4-of-4 from the free throw line.  

The leading scorer for CCU was Jessica Murdoch, who finished with 22 points on the night after going an impressive 11-of-13 from the field.  Gillian Foster also provided more second half production as she finished the game with 13 points. 

The Jackets hit the boards early-and-often as they out rebounded the Cougars 35-27 to make up for the lost possessions after having 21 turnovers.  The BHSU defense did step-up in the second half the game to force the Cougars to 22 turnovers by game's end. 

After going 9-of-27 (33.3%) from the field in the first half, the Jackets offense improved to 23-of-56 (41.1%) on the night to help extend their lead to double digits.  While the Cougars shot their best in the first half (47.6%), they added 14 more shots in the second half to get them to almost 47-percent shooting on the night after shooting 23-of-49 from the field. 

Senior, Calli Bechtel, had an impressive night after being second on the team with 12 points (6-10 FG) as she led the Jackets with six rebounds (4 offensive).  Junior, Shanna Halalilo, had a strong night off the bench as she went 5-of-9 from the field for 11 points. 

Veteran leader at the point for BHSU, Dakota Barrie, had four steals and five rebounds before finishing with six points after hitting 4-of-5 free throws.  Redshirt freshman, Courtney Patterson, provided addition energy off the bench as she too finished with four steals and six points. Cassidy Kotelman went 5-of-6 from the free throw line to help BHSU as team finish 81-percent from the charity stripe after going 17-of-21 from the line. 

Tomorrow night the Jackets will be back at the Young Center looking for their second conference victory of the year as they host Colorado School of Mines (2-4, 1-1 RMAC) for a 2 p.m. Sunday matinee.  

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