SPEARFISH, S.D. – After returning to the .500 mark with a wild win over Western Colorado, the Black Hills State University men's basketball team looks to build upon their momentum with their first road contests of 2024 when they visit #8/14 Colorado Mesa University for a marquee Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) matchup on Friday, January 19^th at 7:30 PM at Brownson Arena, followed by a visit to Beehive State to battle Westminster University on Saturday, January 20^th at 7:00 PM.

The Yellow Jackets have not made things easy on themselves to open 2024, with all three contests they have played being decided by five points or fewer, but they have nonetheless grabbed a pair of victories in those three contests and are winners of five of their last seven games overall.

A signature of recent Black Hills State men's basketball squads, this year's team knows what they do well; defending, finishing defensive possessions, and being analytically sound offensively. BHSU ranks just 13^th in the RMAC in scoring offense at 70.9 points per game, but they are always in games because they rank fifth in the conference in scoring defense allowing just 71.6 points per contest. Efficient themselves, and excellent at limiting the opposition's efficiency, the Yellow Jackets rank in the top-four in the conference and top-50 nationally in both their own and their opponent's field goal percentage while their effective field goal percentage of .550 is also a top-50 mark in Division-II and the second-best in the RMAC.

GAME INFORMATION
Black Hills State (7-7, 5-3 RMAC) vs. #8/14 Colorado Mesa (13-2, 9-0 RMAC)
Date: Friday, January 19 // Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Grand Junction, Colo. (Brownson Arena)
Watch: rmacnetwork.com // Listen: KDSJ (103.5 FM & 980 AM)

GAME INFORMATION
Black Hills State (7-7, 5-3 RMAC) vs. Westminster (4-11, 0-9 RMAC)
Date: Saturday, January 20 // Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah (Behnken Field House)
Watch: rmacnetwork.com // Listen: KDSJ (103.5 FM & 980 AM)

FRIDAY vs. #8/14 COLORADO MESA
The reigning RMAC Regular Season Co-Champions, Colorado Mesa has once again been the class of the conference to this point, having not dropped a conference contest in nine tries with victories over the Colorado School of Mines and the then #8 nationally ranked MSU Denver on their resume. They now stand at 13-2 overall with their only blemishes coming against #5 West Texas A&M and Dallas Baptist University who is now ranked #4/7 nationally.

CMU checks all the boxes of a legitimate national contender. Like the Yellow Jackets, they are analytically sound and superb defensively. The Mavericks attempt the second-most three-pointers in the nation, make the third-most, and as a result they own the top effective field goal percentage (.579) and scoring offense (86.9 points per game) in the conference. Colorado Mesa is difficult in part thanks to their willingness to share the ball as they top the conference and are sixth in Division-II in assists with 18.4 per contest. They also attack the glass as the top rebounding team in the RMAC, ranking third on the defensive end while securing more caroms on the offensive end than any other team in the league. They are also the RMAC leaders in field goal percentage, opponent field goal percentage, blocks per game, and fast break points.

The Mavericks have three players in the top-250 in DII men's basketball in scoring, but none in the top-140 as Trevor Baskin (15.9 PPG), Mac Riniker (15.2 PPG), and Owen Koonce (14.7 PPG) are all within a point-and-a-half of each other in scoring average and each of them own a field goal percentage well above .500. Along with being their top scorer, Baskin is CMU's top distributer and rebounder with 3.4 assists and 7.9 assists per game, but he may not even be the team's best player. Riniker has an argument as the most well-rounded player in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference as he scores a bunch with field goal percentage that ranks 11^th in the nation in at an astronomical .642 mark. He's also the reigning RMAC Defensive Player of the Year and leads the Mavericks in blocks (1.00 per game) and steals (2.27 per game) with the later mark leading the conference.

SATURDAY vs. WESTMINSTER
Simply stated, Westminster has had an abysmal 2023-24 campaign to this point. They are winless in nine tries in conference play, just 4-11 overall and own just a pair of victories against Division-II opponents. However, the Griffins cannot be taken lightly, the sixth seed and BHSU's opening round opponent in the RMAC Tournament a season ago, Westminster may be looking to exact some revenge after the Yellow Jackets ended their season a year ago.

The Griffins do not give you many freebees. They commit the fewest fouls per game in the RMAC at 14.4 per game, and while that is a good thing, they seem to have mistaken do not foul for do not defend. In the conference, they rank in the double-digits in every significant defensive statistic, including dead-last in steals per game and opponent three-point percentage. The Griffins do rank sixth in field goal percentage as a team and seventh in both turnovers per game and assist/turnover ratio, all marks in the top-half of the league. However, they shunned the three-point shot, ranking dead last in makes and attempts from range, all while allowing the opposition to convert at a higher rate than any other team in the league. Westminster is also the worst rebounding team in the RMAC, ranking 281^st out of the 289 teams ranked in that category at the Division-II level.

The Griffins do possess four double-digit scorers and they are led by Chase Potter who tallies 13.1 points per game and shoots at a .496 rate from the field. A mark made more impressive given his .217 percentage from range. Against their aversion to the three-point shot as a team, Westminster does have one individual who you have to stick with beyond the arch in Rylan O'Brien as he's the owner of over 43% of his team's three-point makes this season, which for comparison, Matthew Ragsdale, BHSU's leader in made three-pointers, owns 33% of the team's makes. He is second in the league in three-point makes per game at 2.71, making those attempts at a league-best 42.7% rate. Trey Wood is Westminster's top rebounder (4.1 per game) and shot blocker (1.00 per game) while scoring 11.7 points per contest with a .579 field goal percentage. Piece Sterling is their final double-digit scorer averaging 10.5 points per game while running the offense as the team's top passer at 2.6 assists per game.

MATCHUP HISTORY
Black Hills State has faced off against Colorado Mesa 20 times on record with the Mavericks holding the slight edge all time, 9-11 although it has been a back-and-forth matchup recently with the teams evenly splitting the last ten matchups with just one instance of a team winning consecutive matchups during that stretch (BHSU, 3/5/19 and 1/4/20). During the Ryan Thompson era, Mesa is one of the few teams that has given BHSU trouble as the Yellow Jackets sit at the .500 mark across eight matchups, tied with Colorado Mines for the lowest mark against any RMAC foe under Coach Thompson and one of just three teams who BHSU sits with a winning percentage below .700 against. The Yellow Jackets have won two of the three matchups in Grand Junction in that span.

BHSU and Westminster have only met ten times since the Griffins joined the RMAC in 2015-16. Since then, the Yellow Jackets have gone 7-3 against Westminster, 2-2 on the road. Black Hills State has won five of the six matchups in the Ryan Thompson era, and are 1-1 when visiting Salt Lake City.

A BHSU WIN WOULD...
VS. COLORADO MESA: Drive BHSU above the .500 mark for the first time this season… Improve BHSU to 8-7 in the regular season in the Ryan Thompson Era, including 6-3 over the past two seasons and 2-1 this year... Be Colorado Mesa's first loss of the season, snapping the Mavericks run of 17-straight regular season wins against RMAC foes dating back to last season (Fort Lewis, 1/28/23)

VS. WESTMINSTER: (If paired with a Colorado Mesa win) Be BHSU's third-straight victory, their longest winning streak of the season so far… Simply put, get Black Hills State back in the mix to host an opening round game in the RMAC Tournament as Chadron State faces Fort Lewis and Adams State, a weekend sweep with a Chadron split over the weekend would give the Yellow Jackets a 0.5 game lead for the fourth-seed… Be their fifth-straight win head-to-head against Westminster.

A BHSU LOSS WOULD...
VS. COLORADO MESA: Snap a streak of five-straight head-to-head matchups with neither team winning consecutive games.

VS. FORT LEWIS: (If paired with an Colorado Mesa loss) drop BHSU to the .500 mark in conference play… (If paired with a Colorado Mesa win) drop BHSU back to .500 overall.

MATHEW RAGSDALE NOTES
The writer of this preview/game notes, the always humble Bryce Johnson, is quite simply running out of superlatives for what Matthew Ragsdale has been doing this season. 20 or more points in five of his six, 25+ in four of those games, and two games eclipsing 30 points. He has been the Yellow Jackets' leading scorer in 12 of 14 games this season, been the overall leading scorer in a game eight times with the Yellow Jackets going 6-2 in those games. When Ragsdale eclipses 20 points, it is more likely than now that the Yellow Jackets will win the game as they are 4-1 in conference play when that occurs against 1-2 when it does not.

His current run of offensive greatness has him averaging 26.2 points per game with a .523/.333/.857 shooting line while adding 2.2 assists with a 13/10 assist-to-turnover ratio over his last six games with BHSU winning four of those contests. Over his last four, he has not recorded multiple turnovers in any game and his assist-to-turnover ratio is 10/4. His 157 total points is the most he's scored in any six-game stretch as a Yellow Jacket.

Ragsdale has a chance to score 1000 points in his Yellow Jackets career. If he does so, it is believed that he will be the first to do so at the DII level all time. (Per NCAA)

POINTS UNTIL 1000 AT BHSU: 226

TALE OF THE TAPE
Ronnail Tape is averaging 5.4 points per game with a .395/.333/.666 shooting line this season as a starter. As a reserve he has thrived, with his numbers rising to 9.7 points on .500/.545/.750 from the field. He has scored more total points as a reserve (58) than he has as a starter (43) despite having eight starts against just six appearances as a reserve.

SHANKLIN'S SURGE
John Shanklin has hit his stride since the turn of the calendar as he has averaged 9.7 points, 5.3 rebounds (1.0 offensive), 2.0 blocks and 0.7 steals per game with a .632 field goal percentage in that span. He was averaging 6.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 0.9 blocks per game prior to winter break.

RECENT TRENDS
-For Matthew Ragsdale; See Above

-Deegan Williams has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 8/2 over his last three games.

-As a team, Black Hills State is attempting 29.75 three pointers per game over their last four, up from 19.1 prior and with more volume has come more efficiency as they had a .346 three-point percentage prior but are up to .353 in this stretch despite a 6-21 showing against Western Colorado.

-Black Hills State is averaging 10.75 STOCKS (Steals+Blocks) across their last four games, with three games of ten or more in that span. BHSU had just four games with double-digit STOCKS prior and were averaging 6.7 per game.

AGAINST COLORADO MESA
-Across six career appearances against Colorado Mesa, Matthew Ragsdale averages 17.5 points per game shooting .470/.352/.875 shooting line. This despite being limited to just four points in the lone matchup between these two teams last season.

-Caelin Hearne posted four points and two rebounds making two of his three shots from the field in the lone matchup against Colorado Mesa last season.

AGAINST WESTMINSTER
-In eight career games against Westminster, all of them starts, Matthew Ragsdale averages 14.75 points per game, his fourth-lowest against any RMAC team, although he has been reasonably efficient in those contests, with a .467/.354/.810 shooting line.

-Caelin Hearne started both matchups against Westminster last season but he thrived in the regular season showdown, scoring 11 points by making all four of his shot attempts including three from distance. He also contributed three rebounds (one offensive), and one assist, block, and steal in that game. Across the two games, Hearne averaged 7.5 points for BHSU making six of his eight shots and three of five from three. His 3.5 rebounds in his two starts against Westminster is his second-highest mark against any team he has more than one start against.

-Playing only 16 minutes in reserve, Hoku Fisher finished with a nice, do-it-all game against Westminster in the second matchup against Westminster, as he scored five points making both of his shot attempts including one three, in addition to a single rebound, assist, block, and steal in the Yellow Jackets win.

COACHES
Head coach Ryan Thompson is entering his sixth season leading the Yellow Jackets, having taken the program to back-to-back NCAA DII Final Fours, and the RMAC tournament each of the last five years.

The reigning RMAC Coach of the Year, Mike DeGeorge is in his sixth season leading the Colorado Mesa men's basketball program, guiding the Mavericks to a pair of conference regular season and tournament titles each, making the NCAA Tournament in four of five seasons at the helm. He was previously the head coach at Rhoades College for eight seasons, Cornell College for five years, and Eureka College for four seasons before moving west.

Just Westminster's third coach since the program was reinstated in 1999, Norm Parrish is in his ninth season as bench boss for the Griffins. He spent time as a member of the coaching staff at both the University of Utah and the University of Hawaii in addition to being the head coach at Salt Lake Community College prior to Westminster.

Up Next: Black Hills State will return to A2 Arena next weekend for a pair of RMAC contests against New Mexico Highlands (7-8, 4-6 RMAC) and CSU Pueblo (8-7, 4-5 RMAC) on January 26^th and 27^th.