Black Hills State men's basketball used a seven-point comeback to force overtime and move past Arkansas Fort Smith 77-72 Saturday night.
The Yellow Jackets (1-1, 0-0 RMAC) shot 50 percent from the field, and used big plays late in the game to earn their first win of the season.
Matthew Ragsdale led the offense with 27 points, going 9-of-18 from the field, to go with five rebounds and a steal.
Hoku Fisher was the other Yellow Jacket in double-digit scoring with 12, grabbing four rebounds and two steals along the way.
John Shanklin hauled in four boards and made three blocks, while Olafur Gunnlaugsson and
Deegan Williams also checked in with four rebounds.
Ronnail Tape and
Caelin Hearne each scored eight and had three boards apiece, and
Myles Johnson tallied nine points, a block and a steal.
After trading buckets to open the game, a three from Tape and a Ragsdale layup made it a 9-9 game before another layup and a triple from Ragsdale put BHSU ahead 16-12 six minutes into the game.
Another three from Ragsdale kicked off a 9-0 scoring run to extend the Yellow Jacket lead to 25-15 midway through the first.
Back-and-forth continued from there as UAFS answered a Gunnlaugsson three and layups from Johnson and Speckman, putting the score at 32-22 with 6:15 remaining in the first.
The Lions drew back to within six, 34-28 at the under-4 media break, but a Fisher three just out of the timeout followed by a Shanklin two-handed slam made it 39-28.
Out of the break, UAFS began to climb back, drawing within three, 43-40. But a big layup through traffic from Williams and a Johnson bank shot helped create more separation as the score was 47-42 at 15:04.
UAFS didn't back down, eventually drawing back even 49-49 with 12 minutes to go. The Lions would pull back ahead for the first time in the second half, 52-51, as time ticked under nine.
Teams traded blows from there as a Speckman layup put BHSU back on top 53-52 until UAFS extended their lead to six, 60-54, with five to play.
A 3-pointer from Tape cut the team's deficit in half, 60-57, but the Lions would go on to take their largest lead of the night, 66-59 as the clock ticked under two.
Ragsdale jumper and a layup drew the Yellow Jackets back to 66-63 before Fisher battled out a layup and completed the 3-point play to even the score at 66-66 in the final seconds, forcing overtime.
Ragsdale hit a mid-range jumper for his 20th point of the night, and then sank a free throw to put BHSU ahead 69-68.
On the next UAFS possession, Shanklin came up with a block before Ragsdale ran up the court for a fast-break layup while getting fouled. After being called a flagrant foul, he sank both free throws to extend the Yellow Jacket lead to 73-68 with 3:10 to go.
A pair of Lions layups made it 73-70 entering the final minute of the extra period, but BHSU went 4-of-4 from the charity stripe to seal the 77-72 win.
Up Next
The Yellow Jackets return to the court next weekend at the East/West Challenge hosted by SD Mines in Rapid City, S.D.
-BHSUAthletics.com-
