Black Hills State men's basketball downed rival South Dakota Mines 76-60 in front of a record crowd of 3,077 Tuesday night.

After surrendering 25 points in the first half to Hardrocker junior Alejandro Rama, the Yellow Jackets (17-1, 11-1 RMAC) held him scoreless in the second half while BHSU shot 57.7 percent themselves.

The Yellow Jackets had five in double-digit scoring while taking advantage of SDM turnovers, outscoring them 21-9 on points off turnovers.

Matthew Ragsdale led the scoring attack with 19 points to go along with his four rebounds and a steal.

Joel Scott finished with 16 points, two steals and two blocks while Sindou Cisse tallied 12 points, five assists and four rebounds.

PJ Hayes scored 11 with six rebounds and five assists and Caelin Hearne totaled 10 points and six rebounds.

Hoku Fisher made his presence known over a season-high 22 minutes on the floor with eight points, nine rebounds an assist and a steal.

Down 5-0 early, a Scott layup and threes from Ragsdale and Scott helped BHSU rattle off an 11-3 run to pull out to an 11-8 lead over the opening five minutes of play.

Back-to-back threes from Ragsdale and Fisher minutes later kept the Yellow Jackets out front 17-13, but SDM scored five unanswered to re-take an 18-17 lead midway through the first half and would hold their largest lead of the game, 31-25 as the clock ticked under three to go in the first.

A trey from Hayes and a Cisse layup before the break made it a 1-point game as BHSU went into the half trailing 37-36.

Right out of the break, a Hearne 3-pointer put BHSU back on top 39-37 before a Ragsdale triple shortly after extended the Yellow Jacket lead to 42-39. SDM wasn't done though, evening the score 42-all a couple possessions later.

The Yellow Jackets began to pour it on from there, though, as threes from Ragsdale and Hearne pushed BHSU back ahead 50-45 with 12:58 remaining. Then another Ragsdale three kicked off what would be a 15-3 scoring run, using a pair of Cisse layups and a huge triple from Hayes to extend to a resounding 67-50 lead with 5:18 to play.

BHSU led by as many as 19 points down the stretch as a Fisher three and Ragsdale 3-point play all but sealed the 76-60 win over rival South Dakota Mines.

Up Next
The Yellow Jackets play again Thursday, Jan. 26 as the team hosts Colorado Christian at 7 p.m.