Black Hills State University Athletics

EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Black Hills State men's basketball fell just short Thursday afternoon, falling to No. 2 West Liberty, 87-82.

The Yellow Jackets (29-6, 18-4 RMAC) finish the season with the most wins in a season since joining Division II, and have now made back-to-back NCAA Final Four appearances and

Joel Scott scored 30 on his way to his 16th double-double of the season, going along with 13 rebounds and a pair of blocks.

PJ Hayes added 17 points, going 5-of-8 from deep, and grabbing five boards.

Jaeton Hackley and Sindou Cisse also finished in double-figure scoring, totaling 11 and 10, respectively. Hackley dished three assists and tallied four rebounds while Cisse had nine boards and five assists.

Matthew Ragsdale hit a trio of threes scoring nine and corralling two rebounds. Hoku Fisher also scored a three and Ryker Cisarik added two from the floor.

West Liberty took a quick 6-1 lead early before a Ragsdale 3-pointer made it 6-4. From there, WLU stretched out to 12-5 with under 16 to go.

Back-to-back Hackley driving layups led to six straight from the freshman, drawing BHSU back to within one, 12-11 with 14:22 left in the half. The Hilltoppers stretched their lead back out to 17-11, before a Scott 3-point play and Hayes three kept BHSU close, 20-18 midway through the first.

The game of runs continued, as eight straight from WLU extended the Hilltoppers to a 10-point lead, 28-18. Back-and-forth play too over from there, with a pair of buckets from Scott to keep pace as the game saw a 37-26 WLU lead with 3:58 to go before the break.

A triple from Hayes and a Cisarik put-back in the final minutes sent the Yellow Jackets to the locker room, trailing 47-31.

A Cisse layup and Ragsdale three right out of the break chipped away at the Hilltopper lead, making it 47-36. WLU outscored BHSU 10-3 over the next few minutes, though, to take a 57-39 lead with 16:31 to go.

BHSU answered with a Hackley layup and Scott 3-point play, to get back within 15, 59-44. But WLU wouldn't let up, extending to an 18-point lead, 63-45 with 13:54 remaining.

From there, a Hayes triple and a pair of Scott layups cut the deficit to 11 points, 66-55 with 11:03 to go. A Hoku Fisher triple with under 10 minutes left made it a 10-point game, 70-60 on the next possession.

Later a Scott layup would draw BHSU within single digits for the first time in the second half, 77-68 with 5:26 on the clock. A Ragsdale three a few possessions later and a pair of Scott free throws cut it to a six-point game, 80-74 as the game entered its final three minutes.

A Hilltopper layup with 1:39 to go put them ahead 82-74, but Hayes answered with a trey to pull the Yellow Jackets within five, 82-77.

In the final minute of play, free throws from Hayes made it a one-possession game with 4.9 seconds to go, 85-82, but WLU would hang on to win, 87-82.

Notes

• Scott and Ragsdale finish the season combining for 1,277 points this season, giving them the most combined points by a pair of NCAA teammates who were also high school teammates, surpassing 1,047 scored by Dick and Tom Van Arsdale at Indiana in the 1963-64 season.
• With 13 rebounds, Joel Scott finishes the year at 996 for his career, four shy of 1,000.
• Scott's season points total ends at 805, re-setting his single-season points record of 787 he set last season, and making him the first 800-point scorer in BHSU history.
• His 805 points makes him the current total points leader in the nation.
• Scott's career point total sits at 2,457, making him the active career scoring leader all of NCAA DII.
• At 29-6, BHSU reached its highest win total since moving DII, and the second-highest win total in program history. The program went 28-7 in the 2010-11 season (their final year as a member of the NAIA) and a program-best 30-5 in 2008-09.
• As a program, the Yellow Jackets are 8-2 all time in NCAA Tournament play.