Black Hills State men's basketball will head south to take on Chadron State on Tuesday, Feb. 15 at 7:30 p.m.
The Yellow Jackets are 14-4 in the RMAC this season, and 16-7 overall. The program has received votes on national NCAA MBB Polls twice this season, receiving four votes on the Jan. 31 D2SIDA poll, and two votes on the Jan. 2 NABC Coaches Poll.
BHSU is now coming off a pair of weekend losses to UCCS and New Mexico Highlands as the team looks ahead to a pair of rivalry games this week against Chadron State on Tuesday, and SD Mines on Saturday.
The game will also mark the 100th game for Head Coach
Ryan Thompson over his time at the helm of the men's program.
The 13th-place Eagles sit middle of the pack offensively in the conference, but they give themselves second chances off the glass as they average 9.6 offensive boards per game, good for second in the RMAC. Additionally, CSC gives up very few turnovers despite moving the ball a lot, dishing out the third-most assists in the league (360).
The Eagles are 9-15 overall this season and 5-11 in conference play with league wins over Western, NMHU, Metro State and CSU Pueblo. BHSU is 16-4 all-time against CSC, and 11-1 over their last 12 meetings.
EAGLES' LAST TIME OUT
The Chadron State College men's basketball team held a slim lead at halftime, but the homestanding University of Colorado Colorado Springs Mountain Lions took charge in the second, shooting over 60 percent from the field and making 8-of-15 three-pointers in an 87-68 final in Colorado Springs Saturday evening.
Chadron State led for more than half of the first period, when there were 10 lead changes and eight ties. The Eagles went into halftime on top 37-35 after both teams scored on exactly 13 field goal tries and four three-pointers.
The difference was two extra foul line shots and two extra baskets made for CSC. Neither team led by more than two possessions in the first half.
In the second, UCCS went on a 30-7 run that consumed nine minutes and was punctuated by a dunk by the Mountain Lions' Alijah Comithier at 8:09. That put UCCS up 71-49 and the home team's lead remained between 19 and 24 for the remainder of the game.
Despite a large advantage in free throw shooting in the second half, the Eagles gave up 13 more buckets than they made, and more than half of those were from long range.
According to statistics provided by UCCS, the Mountain Lions made transitions their main advantage in the game, scoring 24 more points than CSC on fast breaks.
Comithier, a guard for UCCS, finished with a game-high 24 points, on 9-of-12 shooting, and tied for his team's lead with six rebounds. Australian freshman Jezza McKenzie scored 17 to follow, while Jo'Nil Fugett was good for 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting including a perfect 3-for-3 from downtown. Fugett added eight assists and six boards.
For the Eagles, CJ Jennings was 3-of-6 from three and finished with 14 points and a team-high six rebounds. Mason Hiemstra added 11 points.
LAST MATCHUP: CSC @ BHSU (Jan. 18, 2022)
Black Hills State men's basketball defeated Chadron State, 83-65 with a strong second-half performance.
Despite trailing at halftime, the Yellow Jackets shot over 65 percent from the field, and 50 percent from deep in the second half to seal the win.
Joel Scott led all scorers with 22 points while also totaling nine rebounds, two assists and four blocks.
Sindou Cisse came down with eight rebounds, three assists and a steal to go along with his 15 points.
Adam Moussa dished out four assists and scored 14 points, while
Ryder Kirsch and
PJ Hayes each scored nine.
Tommy Donovan finished with four points, four rebounds and four assists.
The Eagles got out to a quick start, leading most of the first half by taking advantage of turnovers, but the Yellow Jackets were able to remain in striking distance. CSC would lead by as much as 10 (23-13) with 11:20 to go in the first half before BHSU began inching back before the break.
Layups from Scott and Donovan down the stretch pulled BHSU to within two possessions, and a big 3-pointer from
Ryker Cisarik in the final seconds before halftime drew the Yellow Jackets within one as they trailed 35-34 going into the locker room.
After going back-and-forth out of the half, the Yellow Jackets re-took the lead 43-42 on a Cisse jumper three minutes into the second.
BHSU would follow that up with a 7-minute, 21-4 run behind seven points from each Moussa and Scott and a monster dunk by Cisse to move out to a 66-52 lead with 7:26 remaining.
From there, threes from Moussa and
PJ Hayes extended the Yellow Jacket lead before a Cisarik dunk gave the team a 20-point advantage, 81-61 with a minute to go before BHSU closed it out.
YELLOW JACKETS' LAST TIME OUT
Black Hills State men's basketball had three reach scoring milestones in Saturday's 83-74 loss to New Mexico Highlands.
The Yellow Jackets (16-7, 14-4 RMAC) also had two record double-doubles in the game as the team made 27.8 percent of their 36 attempted threes.
Adam Moussa led the offense with 21 points, going 5-of-8 from deep, to go along with 11 rebounds and three assists. This is his Moussa's third double-double of the season.
Joel Scott grabbed a team-high 16 rebounds with 20 points, an assist, a steal and a block for his 16th double-double of the season.
During Saturday's game, Scott scored his 500th point of the season to become the fifth Yellow Jacket to score 500 in a season, and gives him the eighth 500 point season in BHSU history.
Additional milestones in the game came from
Sindou Cisse and
Sava Dukic, each scoring their 500th career point.
Cisse surpassed the 500-point mark in his NCAA career with his eight points in the game. He had previously scored 571 points at the NJCAA level before transferring to BHSU prior to his junior season, and now sits at 1,075 total points.
Dukic also reached the 500-point milestone in the game, scoring five as he now sits at 503 career points.
BHSU grabbed its first lead early, 8-7 on a Scott jumper, but NMHU was able to keep up seemingly point-for-point. A few minutes later, the Cowboys traded threes with
PJ Hayes and the Yellow Jackets would trail 24-23 midway through the first.
Neither team led by more than four points in the back-and-forth opening half that saw seven lead changes and eight ties. As the clock ticked down in the first, a 3-point play from Scott helped BHSU retake the lead 34-33 before big points from Moussa down the stretch sent the Yellow Jackets into the locker room with a 45-44 lead.
Both teams traded points out of the break, and BHSU went up 55-54 on Scott layup, but NMHU would follow that with an 11-2 scoring run to move ahead 65-57 midway through second half.
Each offense cooled over the next several minutes, and although BHSU made a push in the final minutes with threes from Moussa and Cisse along with some free throws, the team would eventually fall, 83-74.
COACHES
Head coach
Ryan Thompson enters his fourth season leading the Yellow Jackets. He has taken the BHSU men's program to the RMAC tournament each of the last three years and was named RMAC Coach of the Year following the 2019-20 season.
Eagles head coach Shane Paben is currently in his second season leading CSC. In his first year, he led the Eagles to their first-ever RMAC Tournament bid last season.
A TUESDAY BHSU WIN WOULD...
Improve the Yellow Jackets to a 15-4 record in the conference which would continue their best start since the 2019-20 season.
A TUESDAY BHSU LOSS WOULD...
Drop the Yellow Jackets to 16-8 overall and 14-4 in the conference.
JOEL SCOTT SUPERLATIVES
Now in his junior season, Scott currently leads the nation in defensive rebounding, averaging 9.04 per game, and ranks top-10 in six statistical categories.
1st - Defensive Rebounds Per Game (9.05)
2nd - Double-Doubles (16)
7th - Total FGs Made (187)
7th - Total Points (500)
7th - Total Rebounds (252)
8th - Rebounds Per Game (11.0)
Additionally, Scott leads the RMAC in three different statistical categories and is top-3 in 13 categories.
DOUBLE-DOUBLES
The BHSU men's basketball team has recorded 19 individual double-doubles in the team's 23 games played to start the 2021-22 season.
Joel Scott has tallied a BHSU DII record 16 double-doubles in his 23 games played this season. He was also the first to have a double-double in the first game of the season since Fraser Malcolm in 2017-18 season.
Scott has tallied 24 career double-doubles at BHSU, with a career-high 16 double-doubles this season after recording the feat four times in each his freshman and sophomore campaigns.
Adam Moussa recorded the first three double-doubles of his career this season, doing so on 11/24 at MSU Billings, 1/14 at Western Colorado, and 2/12 at N.M. Highlands.
HISTORY ON DECEMBER 3
Anyone who watched the Friday, Dec. 3 game against Western Colorado was saw something special.
Joel Scott had an historic game, breaking the school record for points in a game as he finished with 50 on the night, surpassing the previous record of 46 points set by Jeff Stevens in 1996. Coincidentally enough, Scott's record-tying 46th point of the night also put him past the 1,000-point threshold for his career.
As if that wasn't enough for one night, Scott wasn't even the game's leading scorer as Western Colorado's Matthew Ragsdale broke their school record with 53 points of his own. And to tie it all together, he and
Joel Scott were both teammates at the same high school, Lewis-Palmer H.S. in Monument, Colo.
-BHSUAthletics.com-
