SPEARFISH, S.D.—The Black Hills State University women's basketball team returned to the Young Center on Friday with play-off implications on the line.  The Yellow Jackets entered the contest tied for fourth place with Regis and Colorado Christian in the RMAC standings and were looking to escape the pack. 

Colorado School of Mines stood in BHSU's way. The Orediggers are on the outside looking in when it comes to the playoffs and were looking to play a spoiler role. That didn't work out as the Yellow Jackets came up with a 64-51 victory on Friday evening.

BHSU improves to 13-9, 11-7 RMAC while Colorado Mines falls to 11-13, 6-12 RMAC.

The Yellow Jackets found themselves trailing 2-0 and 4-2 during the early stages of the contest. Those were the only instances BHSU found themselves in a hole throughout the first half.  Chelsey Biegler made her presence strong with a three-pointer to give the Yellow Jackets a 5-4 lead with 16:57 remaining in the first half. 

BHSU continued to build a larger lead as the beginning of the first half progressed. The Yellow Jackets followed with a 16-6 run that gave them a 21-10 lead with 7:35 remaining in the first half.

The Orediggers had BHSU walking on eggshells to open the final ten minutes of the first half.  A pair of Courtney Martin layups and a three-pointer from Taylor Helbig cut the Yellow Jacket lead to 23-17 with 5:14 left in the first half.

Colorado Mines continued to thread the needle on BHSU as they closed out the final five minutes of the first half with an 8-4 run.  Laura Tyree's four points down the stretch of the first half helped narrow the Yellow Jacket lead to 27-25 at halftime.

The Orediggers took a brief lead when Sam Rusk nailed a three-pointer to make the score 28-27 at the 19:41 mark of the second half. That was enough to fuel the Yellow Jackets as they followed with a 15-5 run that gave them a 42-33 lead with 14:00 left in the second half.

A pair of three-pointers from Gabby Haefs and Biegler helped BHSU maintain a nine-point lead until the 6:56 mark of the second half. The score at that point was 52-43. 

Colorado Mines cut the BHSU lead to four points on a Tyree layup to make the score 53-49 with 4:05 remaining in the second half. That was as close Colorado Mines got as the Yellow Jackets finished the contest with an 11-2 run to give them a 64-51 victory.

Logan Cowan scored 17 points to lead the BHSU offense while Martin's 16 points led the Orediggers.

The Yellow Jackets will return to action tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 14 when they'll face Colorado Christian University. Tip-off is set for 4:00 p.m.