SPEARFISH, S.D. – The Black Hills State University women's basketball team welcomes South Dakota Mines and Westminster College on Tuesday, January 16 and Thursday, January 18 for midweek games. Tipoff is slated for 5:30 p.m. both nights.
 
THE GAME - South Dakota Mines

• The two teams meet on the hardwood on Tuesday, January 16, with a 5:30 p.m. tipoff. South Dakota Mines leads the all-time series, 51-45.
• Taylor Molstad and Anna Haugen lead the Lady Hardrockers' offense, averaging 10.6 and 10.5 points per game, respectively. Sami Steffeck and Cooper Courtney are right behind with a 10.1 points per game average. Haugen leads the defense as well, with an 8.1 rebounds per game average.
• South Dakota Mines currently sits in sixth place in the conference, right behind Black Hills State and Colorado Mesa.

THE GAME - Westminster College

• The two teams meet for the third time on the hardwood on Thursday, January 18, with a tipoff set for 5:30 p.m. Black Hills State leads the all-time series, 2-0
• Denise Gonzalez leads the Griffins' offense with a 14.9 points per game average. Hunter Krebs is right behind with a 12.6 points per game average. Krebs leads the defense with 5.6 rebounds per game, and Gonzalez is right behind with a 5.4 rebound per game average.
• Westminster currently sits right behind the Hardrockers in seventh place with an 8-7 record overall and a 7-4 record in conference.

THE COACHES

• Black Hills State University head coach Mark Nore enters his 16th season with the Yellow Jackets and owns a 275-179 record. He is the all-time wins leader for the Yellow Jacket basketball team.
• Ryan Larsen enters his season at the helm of the Hardrockers program. Larsen led the Hardrockers to a 10-16 record in his first season.  In his fourth year with SD Mines, Larsen led the team to its first ever RMAC post-season tournament. Prior to SD Mines, Larsen served five years as the assistant women' s basketball coach at the University of South Dakota, and was a member of the Augustana men's basketball team from 2002-07.
• Shelley Jarrard begin coaching the Griffins in the 2011-12 season. Jarrard has led the Griffins to four consecutive NAIA National Championships and won three straight Frontier Conference Tournament titles. She has compiled a 104-19 overall record. Jarrard coached for 11 seasons at the University of Utah and appeared in seven NCAA Tournaments. She spent two seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Kansas State.

LAST TIME OUT
Black Hills State had a major upset over #13 Fort Lewis on Friday, January 12, followed by a victory over Adams State on Saturday, January 13, 71-53.
 
Against Fort Lewis, Rachel Erickson led all scorers with 20 points, going 7-of-13 from the floor, 3-of-6 from downtown, and 3-of-5 from the line in 24 minutes of action. Katie Messler tied her season high with 12 rebounds. The Yellow Jackets held Vivian Gray to just nine points through three quarters, and held the Skyhawks to a 29.3 shooting percentage from the floor. BHSU outscored Fort Lewis, 30-14, in the second half.
 
Against ASU, Katie Messler registered her first career double-double, grabbing 10 rebounds and 11 points. Erickson led all scorers with 14 points, going 50 percent (5-of-10) from the field, while Lyndzi Rich had 12 points and Keely Bertram had 10 points.

Black Hills State will hit the road for a series of road games starting on Friday, January 26 and Saturday, January 27, travelling to Colorado Mesa and Western State. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Friday and 5 p.m. on Saturday.