Black Hills State basketball returns to the Donald E. Young Center this weekend, with the lady Yellow Jackets (10-3, 5-2 RMAC) tipping off at 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 13 and Saturday, Jan. 14 at 4 p.m. against Colorado Mesa and Westminster, respectively.
 
The BHSU women's squad return to Spearfish for the first time in the New Year and are coming off a road trip victory last weekend, which saw them take down the Western Colorado Mountaineers in a tight 55-52 contest in Gunnison.
 

BLACK HILLS STATE vs COLORADO MESA  FRIDAY, JAN. 13 // 5 P.M. // SPEARFISH, S.D. // DONALD E. YOUNG CENTER Live Stream / Live Stats / Listen Live / Tickets / Game Notes (PDF)

 
FRIDAY VS. COLORADO MESA
The Mavericks head to Spearfish holding on to a three-game winning streak that included two wins over the previous weekend against Chadron State and Colorado Christian. On Friday, Jan. 6 the Griffins downed the Eagles 76-31 before swiftly defeating the Cougars the following day, 52-29.
 
CMU was red-hot last weekend as they outscored their opponents 128-60 with the Mavericks shooting 40 percent or better from the floor. Freshman forward Olivia Reed will be a player to watch on defense as she leads the conference in rebounds (143 total, 9.5/game) and is second in blocked shots (21 total, 1.4/game).
 
MAVERICKS' LAST TIMEOUT
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The Colorado Mesa women's basketball team moved their season long win streak to three after a 52-29 win over the Colorado Christian Cougars on Saturday (Jan. 7) evening in Brownson Arena.
 
The defense the Mavericks have been playing is a big reason for the three-game winning streak. They have held their opponents to less than ten points in a quarter for seven straight quarters going back to the second quarter against Chadron State. Also, for the second straight night they limited their opponent to just 18 percent from the field.
 
Colorado Mesa limited the Cougars to just one made three that came late in the game when Mia Guest hit a desperation three with the shot clock ticking down with 1:12 to play in the game.
 
Offensively, the Mavericks shot a shade over 40 percent from the field and had six made three-pointers on the evening. Different from previous games, the Mavericks converted 15 Colorado Christian turnovers into 19 points.
 
They led the game wire-to-wire and extended their biggest lead to 27 points in the fourth quarter after Tia Slade made her lone three of the night at the 4:33 mark of the fourth quarter to make it 51-24.
 
Olivia Reed finished with a double double as she poured in 13 points on 6-for-7 shooting from the field and a perfect 1-for-1 from the free-throw line. She finished the feat by pulling down 10 boards and three blocked shots.
 
Reed was the lone Maverick in double figures but that didn't mean others didn't have a stat stuffer night. Kylie Kravig finished with eight points, eight assists, and three steals while Jamisyn Heaton had nine points and seven rebounds.
 
Colorado Christian came into the game as one of the top rebounding teams in the conference and the Mavericks stayed even as each team had 36 rebounds.
 
A FRIDAY BHSU WIN WOULD...
Send the Yellow Jackets to a 6-2 record in the RMAC, keeping them in the top-five of the conference.
 
A FRIDAY BHSU LOSS WOULD...
Put BHSU at a 5-3 conference look, which would put them in the mix with Adams State, CSU Pueblo, and MSU Denver for the sixth seed in the RMAC.
 
LAST MATCHUP: BHSU vs CMU (Jan. 24, 2022)
Black Hills State University women's basketball defeated Colorado Mesa 68-62 on Monday afternoon in the Donald E Young Center.
 
The first quarter of play was all about three-point plays for the Yellow Jackets as the team would sink two shots from downtown and complete a handful of three-point plays. This hot shooting helped the Yellow Jackets take an 18-17 lead into the second quarter.
 
The Mavericks would snag their largest lead of the game in the second quarter, taking a three-point lead over the Yellow Jackets with 8:50 to play in the second. However, the Yellow Jacket defense locked up and held the Mavericks to just 11 points in the quarter. Meanwhile, the Yellow Jacket offense racked up 21 points to take their largest lead of the game with 1:27 left to play in the half. Into the break, BHSU led the Mavericks 39-28.
 
The Mavericks came out of the break dominate on defense as they held BHSU to just eight points. The Yellow Jackets battled through the quarter and would hold on to a slight lead coming out of the quarter behind a pair of free throws by Kocer as they went into the final ten minutes of play up, 47-45.
 
With 1:30 left to play the Mavericks would tie it up at 60 on a three-point play of their own. The Yellow Jackets finished out the quarter perfect from the charity stripe, making 8-of-8 attempts to seal the 68-62 victory and stay undefeated at the Young Center.
 

BLACK HILLS STATE vs WESTMINSTER  SATURDAY, JAN. 14 // 4 P.M. // SPEARFISH, S.D. // DONALD E. YOUNG CENTER Live Stream / Live Stats / Listen Live / Tickets / Game Notes (PDF)

 
SATURDAY VS. WESTMINSTER
The Griffins, who have a South Dakota Mines matchup before Saturday's game against BHSU, are also on a roll as they've won their last four matchups that included a 64-56 victory against the No. 10 CSU Pueblo on Dec. 31. Despite a 3-5 record and a 10th place spot in the conference at the beginning of December, Westminster has climbed their way to the number two spot in the conference heading into this weekend. Lyndzi Rich, their graduate forward, had a monster performance against Chadron State as she dropped 29 points against the Eagles, combining for 45 points on the weekend.
 
GRIFFINS' LAST TIMEOUT
Salt Lake City, UT - Saturday evening saw Chadron State come into town for another RMAC showdown, with the Griffins coming out on top over the Eagles in an 83-57 victory.
 
Lyndzi Rich ended the night with a season high 29-point game as she went 13-of-18 from the floor and 3-of-5 at the free throw line with six rebounds on the night.
 
Jaycee Lichtie also had a season-high night as she scored 15-points off the bench. In 25 minutes of game time, she was 6-of-9 in overall shoooting and 3-of-4 from the charity stripe while dishing out a pair of assists.
 
Overall, Westminster had four players finish with double-digit figures. As a team, the Griffins made 58.2 percent of their total shots, including a .444 clip from beyond the arc.
 
Free throws from Chadron and a layup from the Griffins tied the game at the start, with both squads remaining level up to the 5:08 mark of the first quarter. From there, a 10-point run from the Griffins expanded their lead to 17-8 before a Chadron three-pointer broke the silence from the Eagles.
 
For the last 1:46 in the quarter, neither team scored, leaving Westminster with the 17-11 lead heading into the second frame.
 
The second quarter remained competitive, with Westminster holding as much as a 10-point lead and the deficit shrinking to as much as four points, which was the case at the halfway mark of the quarter with Westminster up 25-21. The Griffins, however, put up another 6-0 run to take a ten-point lead with 3:49 to go in the half, maintaining a manageable lead up to the halftime buzzer.
 
The second half was largely controlled by the Griffins, who came out with another 7-point spree to expand their lead to 45-31 at the 6:49 mark in the third. Despite Chadron putting up 18 points in the quarter, Westminster had answers for it all as they led the Eagles 60-47 heading into quarter four.
 
The Griffins dominated the final frame, outscoring CSC 23-10 and leading by as much as 31-points down the stretch, with the game ending in a 83-57 scoreboard in favor of the Griffins. Westminster held the Eagles to just a 17.7 percent shooting total in the quarter, including a 0-of-4 mark from downtown.
 
LAST MATCHUP: BHSU vs WC (Dec. 4, 2021)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Black Hills State women's basketball fell to the Westminster Griffins Saturday night, 85-49.
 
The Yellow Jackets got off to a slow offensive start in the first quarter after only making 5-of-17 attempts from the floor. After Westminster sunk the first basket of the game, a Megan Engesser three-pointer gave the Yellow Jackets their only lead of the night.Westminster, however, went on a 17-5 run to close out the first quarter of action leading 19-8.
 
The Yellow Jackets and Griffins stayed well matched through the second quarter with both offenses tallying double digits and neither team making a basket beyond the arc. In the second quarter, five Yellow Jackets stepped up to the charity stripe making a perfect 10-of-10 free throws. The Yellow Jackets went into the break trailing the Griffins 40-24.
 
The Yellow Jackets three-point struggles continued into the third quarter as BHSU made no baskets from beyond the arc out of their five attempts. However, the Griffins offense stayed hot out of the break as Westminster tallied another 21 points in the quarter.  The score was set at 61-35 as the teams hit the court for the final quarter of play.
 
A 26-point deficit was too much for the Yellow Jackets to overcome in the fourth quarter. BHSU tallied 14 more points but were outscored by the Griffins 24-14 in the final quarter, setting up the final score of 85-49.
 
COACHES
In his 21st season as head coach of the Yellow Jackets, Mark Nore is the winningest coach in BHSU Athletics history for the women's basketball program with an overall record of 360-225.
 
Taylor Wagner enters his 11th season as the Mavericks head coach and has led his team to six total NCAA Tournament appearances and four RMAC Championships. He is one of two coaches in RMAC history to receive Coach of the Year three consecutive times and has received the honor five total times.
 
Jenteal Jackson enters her second season as the helm for Westminster. She led the Griffins to a 17-9 overall record and 16-5 conference mark in her first season at the helm in 2021, which led to Westminster hosting an RMAC Tournament game.