SPEARFISH, S.D.—Black Hills State University women's basketball entered their first game in 17 days at the Young Center with their hands full. The University of Colorado Colorado Springs came into Spearfish riding a seven-game winning streak while looking to escape the rest of the pack in the RMAC standings.

The Mountain Lions have a two-game cushion on the Yellow Jackets in the RMAC standings. The only losses suffered by the first place Mountain Lions came against California Baptist University and Regis University.

Despite the Mountain Lions success this season, they are on the outside looking in as far as the NCAA Division II women's basketball rankings go. UCCS took a step in proving the voters wrong as they edged the Yellow Jackets 67-66.

BHSU falls to 10-6, 8-4 RMAC while the Mountain Lions improve to 16-2, 11-1 RMAC.

The Yellow Jackets were never able to take command of the lead throughout the first 18 minutes of the first half, but they didn't let the Lions get out of sight.  BHSU never let the Mountain Lions get more than seven points within them in the first half.

Cassidy Kotelman got things rolling for BHSU when she knotted the score at 5-5 with 15:37 left in the first half. The Mountain Lions jumped out to a seven point lead when Brittany Hernandez sunk a layup with 10:02 left in the first half to make the score 18-11.

BHSU responded with back-to-back field goals from Chelsey Biegler and Taylor Trohkimoinen (three-pointer) to tie the score 18-18 with 8:41 left in the first half.  However, it wasn't until the closing minutes of the first half when the Yellow Jackets took their first lead.

Cassidy Kotelman sunk both of her free throws with 2:22 left in the first half to give the Yellow Jackets a 23-22 lead. However, a Jennie Scharn foul with 0:32 left in the first half put Shannon Kelly at the charity strip. She converted on one of her free throw attempts to tie the game 23-23 at halftime. 

Logan Cowan set the tempo for BHSU out of the gates when she converted on back-to-back layups to give the Yellow Jackets a 27-23 lead with 19:00 left in the second half.  The Yellow Jackets went on a 14-10 run to take a 41-33 lead with 11:07 left in the second half, thanks to a step-up three-pointer by Dakota Barrie.

Unfortunately for BHSU, the Mountain Lions went on a 12-4 run to tie the game 45-45 with 7:55 left in the second half. From that point it was a game of chess as the contest featured eight different lead changes. 

Chelsey Biegler converted on a layup with :16.5 left to cut the UCCS lead to 65-64, but a pair of free throws by Jessika Kientz gave the Mountain Lions a 67-64 lead with 0:13 left. Trohkimoinen put home a jumper at the buzzer, but it wasn't enough as BHSU fell to UCCS 67-66. 

Kotelman led the Yellow Jackets offensively with 14 points. The Yellow Jackets held Mountain Lion star Abby Kirchoff to four first half points. She finished the game with 14 points. Kirchoff led the RMAC with 21.2 points per game entering the contest.

The Yellow Jackets will look to finish 1-1 on the weekend when they face CSU-Pueblo tomorrow at the Young Center. Game time is set for 4:00 p.m.