SPEARFISH, S.D. – The Black Hills State University women's basketball team defeated in-state rival South Dakota Mines on Tuesday night, 82-50.
The Yellow Jackets improve to 14-4 overall and 8-4 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action, while SD Mines falls to 12-6 overall and 7-5 in conference action.
In the first quarter,
Julia Seamans was on fire as she hit the first three-pointer of the game to get the Yellow Jackets on the board and go up, 3-0. After a few missed shots by both teams, Anna Haugen got the Lady Hardrockers on the board when she hit a layup under the basket to trail, 3-2.
With 4:15 remaining in the quarter, Seamans dropped another three to give BHSU a 9-6 lead over the Hardrockers.
Rachel Erickson followed up with a layup to increase the Yellow Jacket lead to five and go up, 11-6. With just over two minutes remaining in the first quarter, Seamans hit her third three-pointer to lead, 16-9, over SD Mines.
Remi Wientjes hit a jumper from the top of the key to give BHSU an 11-point lead, 20-9, with one minute remaining. However, the Hardrockers cut in to only trail by eight at the end of the quarter, 23-15.
In the second quarter,
Lyndzi Rich started things off knocking down a couple of free throws to increase the Green and Gold lead back up to 10 at 25-15. That set the momentum for the Yellow Jackets, as they continued to push up the score. Seamans hit her fourth consecutive three with 6:37 remaining in the first half to push the lead up to 31-19. Molly McCabe hit a layup to bring the Hardrockers within 10 at 31-21, but Erickson answered back with a three-pointer to take the lead back up to 13 at 34-21.
From there,
Hannah Cass dropped her first career and season three-pointer with under two minutes left in the first half to give the Yellow Jackets a 39-23 lead, before Ryan Weiss knocked one in from downtown to trail by 13 at the half, 39-26.
The second half was no different, as
Keely Bertram started out the third quarter taking a shot from downtown to push the lead back up to 16, followed by Erickson dropping one in from beyond the arc to give the Green and Gold a 45-26 lead. The 11-0 run continued for BHSU with
Remi Wientjes hitting a layup and Erickson making a three-point play, drawing a foul on her layup and finishing with an extra point from the line.
That was enough for the Green and Gold to get on a run to increase the lead to 30 over SD Mines at 67-37 at the end of the third.
In the fourth quarter, Black Hills State never let up. Two minutes into the quarter, the Lady Hardrockers finally dropped a three-pointer by Payton Humpal to trail 67-40. From there, Gabby Doxtater hit a shot in the paint to take the lead back up to 69-40.
With 6:33 remaining in the fourth, Erickson dropped another bucket from downtown to push the lead back up to 30 for the Green and Gold at 74-44. From there, the Yellow Jacket bench closed it out with
Haley Schneider scoring five points, two from the line and a three-pointer, and
Abby Switzer making a free throw to close out the game, 82-50.
Black Hills State shot 51.9 percent from the field, 42.3 percent from behind the arc, and 89.5 percent from the line. Seamans went 100 percent in the first quarter from downtown, going 3-for-3.
Erickson led the offense with 16 points going 5-of-10 from the floor, 3-of-7 from beyond the arc, and 3-for-3 from the line. Seamans finished with 14 points, while Rich had 12.
Rich was a defensive force, blocking two shots and grabbing six rebounds.
Remi Wientjes, Bertram, Seamans, and
Katie Messler all grabbed four rebounds each.
Black Hills State returns to action for its final home stand in the four game series on Thursday, January 18, welcoming Westminster College. Tipoff is slated for 5:30 p.m.
