SPEARFISH, S.D. – The Black Hills State university men's basketball team was unable to complete a comeback to New Mexico Highlands University Friday night in the Young Center in a 64-52 setback.

The Yellow Jackets fell behind 9-0 in the opening minutes before Fraser Malcolm scored the first Yellow Jacket points with 14:08 remaining in the first half. From there, the Cowboys kept pressing the lead and eventually opened a 17-point advantage with 10:31 left in the firs stanza at 19-2.

Black Hills State (5-10, 2-7 RMAC) then found an offensive rhythm that cut into the NMHU advantage, aided with four-straight free throws to bring the deficit to just six points with 3:07 remaining in the first half.

New Mexico Highlands (5-8, 3-5 RMAC) then charged into the second half with a 33-19 advantage.

In the opening minutes of the second half, the Yellow Jackets again cut into the Cowboys lead and brought it down to six points. A quick 4-0 run when the score was 37-27 was helped by a pair of Jonas Anderson buckets including a layup with 13:02 on the clock to make the score 37-31.

From there the Yellow Jackets were unable to cut deeper into the lead as NMHU quietly rebuilt its lead up to 16 points before the two squads began trading baskets until the final score of 64-52 when Malcolm closed the game with a layup.

Malcolm led Black Hills Stat with a career-best 19 points while Zach McLemore inched closer to 1,000 career post-high school points with 11 tonight. The junior is now 32 points shy of the milestone. The Cowboys placed four members in double-figure scoring led by Marlon Johnson and Atem Bior with 14 points each.

The Yellow Jackets return to action Saturday night hosting CSU-Pueblo at 6 p.m. The ThunderWolves fell to South Dakota Mines on Friday night 84-81 in Rapid City.