SPEARFISH, S.D. – Black Friday turned into Zach Friday in the Young Center as the Black Hills State University men's basketball team defeated Presentation College 72-52. Zach McLemore led all scorers with 24 points including 6-of-9 shots from long range.
Black Hills State improves to 2-3 on the season while Presentation falls to 2-5 overall.
The Yellow Jackets went on a 22-5 run to close the game with nine points coming off the hands of McLemore and Fraser Malcolm each as the Green and Gold took a 50-47 advantage and turned it into the final score of 72-52.
The run began with a Malcolm 3-point basket, then six-straight points from McLemore. After Presentation College scored four points, McLemore hit another long-range shot to regain the momentum and a 62-51 lead with 2:41 remaining in the contest.
Malcolm hit another trey of his own, followed by a layup from LD Thomas. The run, and game, ended with another Malcolm 3-point basket and a jumper from Patrick Mendes.
Before the run to end the game, the Yellow Jackets struggled to pull away from the Saints who led for 13:58. The Green and Gold led for 22:10 of the game as the two squads entered the intermission knotted at 27-all. After Presentation hit the opening basket of the second stanza, Mendes hit the equalizing layup and McLemore scored on a 3-point basket with 18:24 remaining in the game to give the Yellow Jackets a lead it would not relinquish.
The Yellow Jacket defense did not allow a single 3-point basket to be made from PC, who went 0-14 from long range, while the home squad countered with 10 made on 22 attempts for a 45.5 percent clip. For the game, the Yellow Jackets hit 28-of-57 (49.1 percent) of their shots equaling a season-best. The Saints shot 18-of-53 from the field for 34 percent and were led by Donnell Minton with 13 points.
After McLemore's second 20-point game of the season, Malcolm added 13 points, Mendes had 12 and LD Thomas scored a season-best 11 points while adding four assists. Sam McCloud grabbed eight rebounds with two blocks and two steals. Malcolm added seven rebounds as the Yellow Jackets grabbed a season-high 48 and outrebounded their opponent by 18.
The Yellow Jackets play their final nonconference game of the season on Sunday, hosting Johnson & Wales with a 3 p.m. tipoff.
