SPEARFISH, S.D. – Oh what a night it was for the Black Hills State University women's basketball team defeating South Dakota Mines 61-57 on Saturday for senior night.

The Yellow Jackets came out to a roaring start going on a 6-0 run to start the game. After Taylor Trohkimoinen won the tip off, Rachel Erickson pushed the ball up the floor to dump it down to Cheyanne Balster to score the first points.

The Hardrockers tried to come back on the attack but Megan Rohrer missed a jumper that allowed Trohkimoinen to grab the defensive rebound. Taylor passed it up to Erickson who was fouled by Krista Showalter to put Erickson at the line for two. After making both free throws, the Yellow Jackets had the 4-0 lead. Sierra Toms closed out the 6-0 run making a shot from the corner of key.

From there, the momentum of the Yellow Jackets and the roaring crowd kept the energy high as BHSU took a 21-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.

At the start of the second quarter, Black Hills State started on another 7-0 run to lead SD Mines by 21 points at 28-7. Balster started the run making two shots from the line. From there, Trohkimoinen grabbed a steal to pass it off to Haley Schneider in the right corner. Schneider passed it back up to Toms at the top of the arc who drained it in for three to go up 26-7 within the first minute of the second.

Balster ended the run with a layup under the basket to force the Hardrockers to take a timeout. With 7:23 remaining, Megan Rohrer made a shot from the corner of the key to trail BHSU 28-9. It was not enough to close in on the Yellow Jacket lead as they closed out the half at 38-22.

At the start of the third, SD Mines came out chipping away at the Yellow Jacket lead going on a 9-0 run following a Rachel Erickson layup. Anna Haugen started the run making one of two from the line. Taylor Molstad continued the run draining one from downtown and hitting one from the line. Haugen scored the last four points of the run for the Hardrockers to trail by ten at 41-31.

SD Mines trailed 49-39 at the start of the fourth. The Hardrockers came out strong making a quick layup by Molstad to continue chipping away at the Yellow Jacket lead trailing 49-41. BHSU stayed strong though as Kassidy Scott scored two from the line to bring the lead back up to 51-41.

With 1:27 remaining in the game, SD Mines threatened a victory as it trailed by four at 55-51. Erickson held the lead for the Yellow Jackets making four from the line to lead 59-51 with 11 seconds to go in the game. Sami Steffeck of the Hardrockers made a buzzer beater shot from way downtown but it was not enough to close out the game as BHSU claimed the victory 61-57.

Black Hills State shot 39.2 percent (20-of-51) from the field and 80.0 percent (16-of-20) from the line.

Erickson led the offense with 18 points in 21 minutes of action going 4-of-7 from the field and 9-of-10 from the line. Balster tied her career-high 16 points going 6-of-10 from the field and 100 percent (4-of-4) from the line in 22 minutes of action. Sierra Toms also contributed to the Yellow Jacket offense scoring 11 points. Trohkimoinen tallied a team high five assists.

On defense, Trohkimoinen grabbed a team high seven rebounds with six of them defensively. Balster was right behind with five rebounds.

"It was a great way to send the seniors off," said head coach Mark Nore. "We had a great first half and we take great pride in how we finished the game off."

Black Hills State honored its past wearing its throwback purple and gold jerseys and improve to 2-0 when wearing the uniforms in the last two years. The Yellow Jackets move into eighth place in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference owning a record of 9-10 in conference play and 9-14 overall. SD Mines falls to 10-14 on the season and 8-11 in the RMAC.

The Green and Gold close out their 2016-17 season on the road for their final three games starting at Colorado Mesa on Saturday, February 18 with tip off scheduled for 5:30 p.m.