RAPID CITY, S.D. – The Black Hills State University women's basketball team's two game win streak came to an end Tuesday evening when South Dakota Mines stung the Yellow Jackets 61-42 at the Rushmore Civic Center.

After getting off to a slow start in the first quarter, Rachel Erickson dropped one from downtown to put the first points on the board and gave the Yellow Jackets an early 3-0 lead. The Lady Hardrockers responded and found their momentum as they went on a 6-0 run starting with two-made free throw shots by Anna Haugen. Abby Switzer ended the Lady Hardrockers run with a layup receiving the pass from Erickson. The Green and Gold trailed by two at the end of the first quarter 11-9.

At the start of the second quarter, the Lady Hardrockers increased their lead with a 6-0 run started by Sami Steffeck. With 4:17 remaining, Sierra Toms stopped the run with a layup to close the gap and trail by six at 17-11. South Dakota Mines went back on the attack and increased the lead by ten at 21-11 with Steffeck making it rain from downtown followed by Taylor Molstad making two from the line and that was enough to close out the first half, 27-15.

Coming out of the half, Black Hills State tried to find its momentum as Cheyanne Balster scored the first basket of the half to close the lead on the Lady Hardrockers 27-17. Steffeck came back and answered with a three-pointer to go back up by 13 at 30-17. From there, Balster scored another layup with an assist from Switzer to bring the score to 30-19.

South Dakota Mines momentum was just too strong as the Lady Hardrockers went on yet another run of 7-0 with 4:50 remaining in the third quarter. The run started with Steffeck once again from beyond the arc followed by a jumper by Molstad. The run ended with Cooper Courtney scoring in the paint to give SDSMT a 47-26 lead with 2:20 remaining in the third.

Trailing 54-31 at the start of the fourth, Gabby Doxtator started it out at the line making 1-of-2. Haley Schneider was right there though as she caused Krista Showalter to turn the ball over and get the steal to go coast-to-coast and bring the score to 54-34. With 4:09 remaining, Erickson grabbed a steal to lay it into the net to give the Yellow Jackets two more points as they trailed 59-39. The final basket of the game with 3:13 remaining from Kassidy Scott making it rain from downtown to end the game 61-42.

The Yellow Jackets saw a slump in shooting tonight as they shot 27.4 percent from the field, 17.4 percent from downtown and 44.4 percent from the line. The shooting for the Yellow Jackets improved drastically in the second half as they went 39.3 percent (11-of-28) from the field.

Switzer led the Yellow Jacket scorers with nine points while Balster and Scott had eight and seven points, respectively.

On defense, Scott grabbed a team high six rebounds while Toms and Balster grabbed five and four rebounds, respectively.

Black Hills State falls to 6-11 on the season and 6-7 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play while South Dakota Mines improves to 8-10 overall and 6-7 in conference action.

The Green and Gold travel to Salt Lake City, Utah to take on RMAC opponent Westminster on Saturday with tip off scheduled for 5:30 p.m.