COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Black Hills State women's basketball defeated the UCCS Mountain Lions 55-52 Friday night to improve to 14-8 overall and 12-4 in the RMAC.
 
The Yellow Jackets battled hard against a scrappy Mountain Lions squad to bounce back from a tough home court loss to CSU Pueblo last weekend.
 
Freshman Haylee Weathersby was on fire as she racked up a team leading and career high 22 points. Weathersby also tallied seven rebounds on the night.
 
It was Ashlee Beacom who led the team defensively however pulling in nine boards and totaling three steals.
 
The Yellow Jacket offense got off to a slow start as the Mountain Lions took a 4-0 lead before a Morgan Hammerbeck three would put BHSU within one. The Yellow Jackets and Mountain Lions battled throughout the remainder of the quarter with the game being knotted up four times before the Mountain Lions snagged a two-point lead at the one-minute mark that they carried into the second quarter at 16-14.
 
The Mountain Lions gained a seven-point advantage over BHSU in the second quarter after going on a 7-2 run to open play. A driving lay-up by Ashley Davis with just under four minutes in the quarter helped swing the momentum back in favor of the Yellow Jackets as they rode an 8-2 run out of the quarter setting up the halftime score of 25-24 in favor of UCCS.
 
The Yellow Jacket offense came alive in the third quarter outscoring UCCS 17-10. Danica Kocer got things started opening the quarter with a jump shot that put BHSU on top 26-25. The two teams were all knotted up three times after that before BHSU's offense hit its stride. With the teams locked at 33 all Haylee Weathersby took control of the quarter scoring eight straight points and set up the score of 41-35 heading into the final quarter of play.
 
A Kocer three to open the quarter gave BHSU it's largest lead of the day up by nine with under eight minutes in regulation. The Mountain Lions would not be put to bed that easily however as they battled back to pull within three at 51-48 with just over two minutes to play. Despite UCCS pulling within one with 13 seconds to play the Yellow Jacket defense did it's job to fend off the Mountain Lions setting up the final score of 55-52.
 
The Yellow Jackets shot 32.7% from the field making 16 of 49 attempts and 36.4% from beyond the arc making 8 of 22 attempts.
 
BHSU made 15 of 22 free throw attempts for a 68.4 free throw percentage.
 
Up Next
The Yellow Jackets take on the Cowgirls in Las Vegas, New Mexico at 5:00 p.m. Saturday, February 12.