RAPID CITY, S.D. – Black Hills State men's basketball took down rival South Dakota Mines, 78-58, Monday night at the King Center.

The Yellow Jackets improve to 6-0 overall, the program's best start to a season since the 1927-28 team opened the season 8-0. BHSU used a monstrous first half, shooting 75 percent from the field and 77.8 percent from deep to take an early advantage in the win.

Joel Scott led the offense with 30 points, going 9-of-15 from the field while grabbing six boards.

Matthew Ragsdale scored 15 while Adam Moussa led the team with 13 rebounds and seven assists. Moussa also tallied a steal and a blocked shot.

In his first game of the season, Sindou Cisse scored nine points to go along with five rebounds and an assist.

An early three from Ragsdale helped BHSU out to an early lead before shots from Moussa and Ragsdale led to a quick 7-0 spurt that extended the Yellow Jacket lead to 13-4 with under 14 minutes left in the first.

A Scott slam along with threes from Cisse, Scott and Hearne helped BHSU rattle off a 16-0 scoring run which extended the lead to 31-8 as the clock ticked under eight minutes remaining in the first.

Leading 44-13 with 4:41 left in the half, their largest lead of the game, the Yellow Jackets traded points with SDM the rest of the way before taking a 51-23 lead into the locker room.

Out of the break, the Hardrockers would chip away at the Yellow Jacket lead, inching back to within 12 (55-43) with under 12 to play. A Hackley triple would stop the SDM run as BHSU slowly regained some breathing room with layups from Shanklin and Scott with a 62-45 lead with 9:12 to go.

The Yellow Jackets continued to separate with the help of a layup and 3-pointer from Scott to extend the lead to 73-51 with five to go in the game, before a Ragsdale layup and Dukic three sealed the 78-58 victory.

Up Next
The Yellow Jackets will open their 2022-23 RMAC schedule this weekend as they play host to Regis in a rematch of last season's RMAC Championship on Saturday, Dec. 2 at 7 p.m. before taking on UC Colorado Springs on Saturday, Dec. 3 at 6 p.m.