SPEARFISH, S.D. – A period of nearly 13 minutes without a field goal doomed the Black Hills State University men's basketball team Friday in a 67-64 loss to preseason Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference favorite Metropolitan State University of Denver.

The Yellow Jackets took a 39-33 lead over the Roadrunners when Wyatt Krogman hit Max Mueller for the 3-point basket with 16:29 remaining. The next time the Green and Gold would score a field goal would be with 3:43 on the clock. Black Hills State did make eight free throws within the drought.

When the drought ended, it was Krogman who sank a trey from long range and kept the Yellow Jackets in the game as MSUD led 54-50 and 3:43 on the clock.

The scoring would come in a flurry down the stretch with the Roadrunners leading 60-52.

Riley Ryan hit a contested 3-point basket with 59 seconds left. After sending DeShawn Phenix to the free throw line, MSUD led by seven points with 51 seconds.

Again, the Green and Gold sank another long basket, this time from Nick Ongarato to stay alive in the game. MSU Denver again traded the 3-pointer for a pair of free throws with 33 seconds and a six-point lead.

With the flurry coming in a hurry, Ryan sank another 3-point basket, cutting the deficit to just three points. Black Hills State then received help from the Roadrunners who finally missed a free throw, as Tony Dobbinson went one-of-two.

With a glimmer of hope, Krogman hit Ryan for yet another three, as the Yellow Jackets were down just one point with eight seconds on the clock.

Peter Moller was sent to the charity stripe with five seconds left and calmly sank both free throws. Down by three the Yellow Jackets had one final chance.

Ongarato, despite getting double teamed, got a good look at the basket from 25 feet out but his shot was just off as MSU Denver escaped with the three point victory. \

Ryan led the Yellow Jackets with 19 points while Ongarato scored 14 and Krogman 11. Patrick Mendes led the team with seven rebounds and tallied nine points while Krogman stayed right at his RMAC leading average of 5 assists.

Dobbinson led the Roadrunners with 22 points while Moller score 16 points. Andre Harris grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.

Even with the scoring drought, the Yellow Jackets had a better shooting percentage at 40.4 percent (21-of-52) while MSUD shot 37.3 percent (19-of-51) from the field. 

The loss ends an NCAA-era best win streak of four games for the Yellow Jackets. They will look to start a new streak Saturday, hosting the Unviersity of Colorado Colorado Springs at 7:30 p.m. in the Young Center.