SPEARFISH, S.D. – The Black Hills State University women's basketball team earned its eighth consecutive win and swept its Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opening weekend, after defeating the Metropolitan State University-Denver Roadrunners, 72-57, on Saturday evening.

The Yellow Jackets improve to 8-0 overall and 2-0 in RMAC action, while MSU Denver falls to 5-3 overall and 1-1 in conference.

In the first quarter, the Roadrunners got off to a 2-0 start, two minutes into the game. Julia Seamans answered back for the Green and Gold to tie the contest, 2-2. A minute later, Lyndzi Rich gave the Yellow Jackets their first lead of the game making a layup under the basket to lead, 4-2.

From there, Georgia Ohrdorf grabbed an offense rebound on a Roadrunners missed shot to put it into the net and tie the game, 4-4. Julia Seamans hit a shot from downtown to give the lead back to the Green and Gold at 7-4. However, Mikala Gordon drove to the hoop to come within one at 7-6, and started a Roadrunner 8-0 run.

The run gave MSU Denver a five-point lead at 12-7.  In the final seconds of the first quarter, Rachel Erickson hit a last second shot to trail, 12-9.

In the second quarter, the Yellow Jackets found their momentum, as they started on a 7-0 run. Remi Wientjes grabbed a steal and drove coast-to-coast to lay one in and bring BHSU within one at 12-11. A minute later, Seamans knocked down her second three of the game to give Black Hills State the lead back at 14-12. Wientjes hit another layup to increase the lead to four at 16-12.

From there, the Roadrunners came back to tie it at 16-all, and two free throws from Emily Hartegan gave MSU Denver the lead back at 19-18. Cortez Standing Bear gained the lead back for BHSU making a move under the basket to go up, 20-19.

That was enough to give the Yellow Jackets the momentum to take a 9-point lead at the half at 34-25.

After halftime, Katie Messler got a quick shot off in the first 30 seconds to increase the Yellow Jackets lead to 11 at 36-25. As the quarter got going though, the Roadrunners cut in on the Green and Gold to trail by six at 40-34. However, it was not enough, as BHSU led by 10 at the end of the third, 51-41.

In the fourth quarter, the Green and Gold got on a hot streak, as they increased the lead to 16 at 57-41, after Messler hit a layup. From there, the Roadrunners were never able to recover, as BHSU led the rest of the quarter to take the victory, 72-57.

Lyndzi Rich led the team tying her season-high 16 points. Rachel Erickson and Julia Seamans each had 13 points. Mikala Gordon was the leading scorer for the Roadrunners, notching 15 points.

Defensively, Messler and Rich each had a team-high seven rebounds. The Yellow Jacket team grabbed 38 total rebounds to the Roadrunners 31.

The Green and Gold shot 49.2 percent (31-of-63) from the floor, 27.8 percent (5-of-18) from beyond the arc, and 71.4 percent (5-of-7) from the line.

Following the weekend, Black Hills State travels to Colorado to face Colorado School of Mines and Colorado Christian on Friday, December 8 and Saturday, December 9. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. both nights.