CHADRON, Neb. – Black Hills State men's basketball dropped its season finale to Chadron State, 88-86 Thursday night.

Despite shooting 52.2 percent from the field, the Yellow Jackets (24-4, 18-4 RMAC) connected on just 7-of-27 attempts from deep and surrendered 29 free throw attempts, of which the Eagles connected on 25.

Joel Scott led the scoring with 29 points to go with eight rebounds, five assists and two steals.

Matthew Ragsdale and Adam Moussa also shot in double-figures, tallying 18 and 16, respectively. Ragsdale sank a team-high four threes while Moussa finished with six rebounds, eight assists and a steal.

Sindou Cisse finished with four rebounds and four assists while Ryker Cisarik totaled eight points and two steals.

A Cisse layup opened the scoring in what would be a back-and-forth start before a Ragsdale 3-pointer put the Yellow Jackets ahead 15-9 with 12:34 to go in the first.

The Eagles would inch back and score seven unanswered to move ahead, 16-15. But BHSU answered with layups from Moussa and Scott before a Ragsdale triple created some separation and turned into a 12-0 scoring run that put BHSU ahead 29-18 at 9:05.

A 5-of-18 showing from behind the arc in the first half allowed CSC to creep back ahead from there, 41-40 with under two minutes before the half, but a Scott layup and Cisarik dunk sent the Yellow Jackets into the locker room, leading 44-41.

Teams traded blows out of the break, seeing six lead changes over the first six minutes until a Cisarik layup, a pair of Scott free throws and a Moussa jumper gave the Yellow Jackets their largest lead since halftime, 59-55 at the under-12 media break.

CSC wasn't done, though, re-taking a 62-61 lead as time ticked under 10 to go, and a trio of free throws extended their lead to 65-61.  

Jumpers from Scott and Moussa pulled BHSU back even with CSC, 67-all, before a Scott layup put the Yellow Jackets back out in front, 69-67 with 7:13 remaining.

Back-and-forth play continued and saw CSC take the lead once again. As the clock ticked under four, CSC still held a slight advantage, 79-77.

The Yellow Jackets continued to trail until a pair of free throws from Scott at 1:20 gave the team its first lead, 84-83, in over five minutes of play.

CSC quickly re-took the lead from there, however, and eventually won, 88-86.

Notes

• Scott and Ragsdale have combined for 1,029 points so far this season, 18 points shy of the most combined points by a pair of NCAA teammates who were also high school teammates (1,047 – Dick and Tom Van Arsdale, Indiana, 1963-64).

Up Next
The Yellow Jackets now look ahead to the RMAC Tournament as the No. 3 seed, and will host Westminster on Tuesday, Feb. 28.