Black Hills State men's basketball is set to take on their rival South Dakota Mines on Saturday, Feb. 19 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 the rival Hardrockers.
The game will also mark the 100th game for Head Coach
Ryan Thompson over his time at the helm of the men's program.
Although the 12th-place rival Hardrockers are currently the lowest-scoring team in the conference, averaging 66.6 points per game, they've allowed only 73.0 points per game (6th in RMAC). While they don't have an overpowering offense, their defense has been able to keep the team in games.
The Hardrockers are 8-16 overall this season and 6-12 in conference play with league wins over Adams State, Western, Fort Lewis and CSU Pueblo, Chadron State and CCU. BHSU is 111-92 all-time against SDM, having won the last matchup earlier this season, and is 7-2 over their last nine.
HARDROCKERS' LAST TIME OUT
The Hardrocker offense powered by 48% shooting from the field and 45% from three-point range was able to shoot themselves out of their funk and pick up the much-needed victory over CCU.
The first half started with both offenses scoring at will with 22 points combined in the first three minutes. The teams continued to trade buckets, with the Hardrockers out to a slight, 21-20 lead with 12:24 remaining. Ross Williams and Keagen Smith were the teams' leaders with 9 and 8 points, respectively.
CCU would get the first slight advantage, leading 30-26 with 6:15 to play at the media timeout. Stretching to before the timeout, a 9-0 run capped by an Alejandro Rama three gave the Hardrockers a 33-30 lead.
The run would continue with a Brevin Walter one handed shot in the lane pushing the lead to 35-30 at the media timeout with 3:26 to go. Another 6-0 spurt with back-to-back threes from Rama and Walter pushed the Hardrocker lead to 8, their biggest of the game. Going into halftime, South Dakota Mines held a 45-38 lead.
Early in the second half, the two teams' offenses would continue to have success, but CCU would go on a 5-0 run to bring the game within 1 point. The CCU momentum would carry on, with Ross Williams' having a big second half, pushing the Cougars to a 63-57 lead.
Brevin Walter would continue to have a big night, scoring 6 in a row, giving him 31 and bringing the game right back to within 1, Hardrockers trailing, 66-65. Moments later, a Kolten Mortensen three would give South Dakota Mines the lead back, 68-66. The two teams would continue to battle back and forth. With 52.5 seconds on the clock, Brevin Walter would hit the two technical free throws, giving him 38, followed by two free throws hit by Keagen Smith. South Dakota Mines led 78-75.
Ross Williams would drill a three on the other end, tying it up with 35.5 seconds to go. On the other end Alejandro Rama would hit a three-pointer at the top of the key that would turn out to be the game winner as a couple of attempts at a tie would not go down for CCU.
LAST MATCHUP: SDM @ BHSU (Jan. 20, 2021)
Black Hills State men's basketball outdueled its rival South Dakota Mines Thursday night, defeating the Hardrockers, 86-65.
The Yellow Jackets (12-4, 10-1 RMAC) never trailed in the game, shooting 16-of 37 from deep and winning the turnover battle 17-7.
PJ Hayes led all scorers with 26 points on the night, going 8-of-10 from deep.
Adam Moussa was all over the court, scoring 17 while grabbing six boards and dishing out six assists.
Joel Scott had himself another double-double performance with his 15 points and 10 rebounds along with three assists and a steal.
Sindou Cisse and
Ryder Kirsch also scored in double-figures, scoring 11 and 10, respectively.
The Yellow Jackets started hot out of the gate, scoring 11 unanswered to open the game, capped by a Scott dunk and a Cisse three. A few minutes later, back-to-back 3-pointers by Hayes extended BHSU's lead to 19-8 at 13:32 in the first.
Teams would trade points through the midway mark of the first until threes from Hayes and Moussa gave the Yellow Jackets their largest lead of the half, going up 37-25 with under five minutes to go before eventually going into halftime with a 39-29 advantage.
BHSU continued to have the hot hand out of the locker room, outscoring SDSMT 9-5 and extending the lead to 48-34. At 9:36, a Hayes triple gave the team their first 20-point lead of the game (66-46) and would go on to lead by as much as 28 (81-53) with 3:19 remaining on Hayes' eighth trey of the night.
Both teams cleared their benches down the stretch as
Taylor Edwards sank a layup in the final seconds and BHSU went on to win 86-65.
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.
Eric Glenn is now in his fourth season as head coach of the SDM men's basketball team. Before being promoted to head coach, Glenn served as the program's assistant coach for the 13 years prior.
A SATURDAY 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 SATURDAY 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-
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