Box Score SPEARFISH, S.D. – After facing the top of the conference on Friday night, the Black Hills State University men's basketball team easily defeated the bottom of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in a 68-57 victory over Western New Mexico Saturday.
The Yellow Jackets improved to 4-5 overall and 2-3 in RMAC action while the Mustangs fall to 0-10, 0-5.
After WNMU took a 4-2 lead in the opening minute of action, the Yellow Jackets knotted the game at 4-all on two of Nick Ongarato's team-high 16 points. After Emery Range made a jumper, Onagrato scored an old-fashioned three-point play for a 7-6 lead that the Yellow Jackets would not relinquish.
Behind Ongarato's stellar first-half performance of 16 points, the Green and Gold shot 61.6 percent from the field and a 46-26 lead.
Black Hills State continued the lead throughout the majority of the second half until the waning minutes when the Mustangs cut the deficit to the final score of 68-57.
However, the game was never in doubt behind Ongarato's 7-of-11 performance with 16 points, 13 from Riley Ryan and 11 from Tate Hilgenkamp. For the game, the Yellow Jackets shot 46.2 percent from the field while the Mustangs shot 36.8 percent and was led by Willie McCray with 17 points.
Max Mueller grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds as BHSU edged the Mustangs 33-32 in that category.
Black Hills State is off until 2016 when the Yellow Jackets travel to RMAC newcomer Westminster on January 1. It will be the inaugural meeting between the two schools with tipoff slated for 7:30 p.m. in Salt Lake City, Utah.
