DURANGO, Colo. – The Black Hills State University women's basketball team defeated the Fort Lewis Skyhawks in a close battle, 53-52. Rachel Erickson led all scorers with 15 points.

Heading into the fourth quarter tied at 40, the Yellow Jackets found themselves with a quick two-point lead with a layup by Erickson to go ahead, 42-40. That did not stop the Skyhawks though as Kayla Herrera was dumped a pass by Briana Clah to answer back and tie the game back up at 42-all. From there, it went round and round as both teams traded off the lead.

In the final minute of the game, BHSU led by three points at 52-49 as Kassidy Scott was dumped a pass by Cheyanne Balster to lay it into the net. The Skyhawks then went on a 3-0 run starting with a free throw made by Shelby Patterson and Clah making a layup in the final 15 seconds to knot it up at 52. The game ended with Scott making 1-of-2 free throws in the final four seconds.

At the beginning of the game, the Skyhawks jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead with the run starting by Patterson scoring a layup on the fast break. Erickson ended that run scoring the Yellow Jackets first points in the paint on a layup receiving the pass from Julia Seamans.

Black Hills State shot 31.7 percent from the field, 27.3 percent from downtown and 60 percent from the line. The Skyhawks faired evenly with the Yellow Jackets as they shot 31.5 percent from field. The Green and Gold held Fort Lewis to its lowest score on the season thus far at just 52 points. BHSU outscored the Skyhawks 25-11 off the bench.

Alongside Erickson, Scott scored 10 points in just 28 minutes of action. Balster followed behind with six points.

Scott led the defense grabbing eight rebounds while Taylor Trohkimoinen and Balster each grabbed five rebounds.

"We are learning and getting better," said head coach Mark Nore. "It was a great road win against a good team."

The Yellow Jackets improve to 5-10 on the season and 5-6 in the conference while the Skyhawks fall to 12-4 overall and 5-1 in the conference.

Black Hills State travels to Alamosa, Colorado to take on Adams State on Saturday evening with tip off scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Adams State fell 74-58 to South Dakota Mines on Friday night.