INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The No. 14 Black Hills State University men's basketball team found themselves at No. 6 in the NCAA's first ranking and second release of the South Central Region polls on Wednesday afternoon. The Yellow Jackets, who ran their win streak to five games with road victories at Adams State (79-69) and New Mexico Highlands (85-77) improved to 22-4 (15-3 RMAC) last weekend. The Green & Gold have won nine of their last ten games and worked their way back atop the conference standings as they enter the final week of the regular season needing just two wins to claim their second outright RMAC regular season championship in the last five seasons.
The Yellow Jackets are one of three teams from the RMAC to appear in the second release of the South Central Region rankings, alongside of Colorado Mesa and Fort Lewis who are No. 8 and No. 9 respectively. The other league represented in the region, the Lone Star Conference, claims the other seven representatives in the first release as Lubbock Christian is No. 1, Dallas Baptist is No. 2, Eastern New Mexico is No. 3, Western New Mexico is No. 4, St. Edward's is No. 5, West Texas A&M is No. 7, and St. Mary's is No. 10.
Looking to claim a conference title on their home court in the upcoming days, Black Hills State is back at home for the final week of the regular season as they host Westminster at 7 p.m. on Thursday, February 26, and Colorado Mesa at 3 p.m. on Saturday, February 28, in A2 Arena. Both games will be streamed live on the RMAC Network and will be available on KDSJ Radio. Additionally, the games will be broadcasted on linear tv on KNBN-2 (Rapid City) and KSFL (Sioux Falls).
The NCAA will release one more regional poll on Wednesday, March 4, while the selection show announcing the official bracket will take place on Sunday, March 8.
The first round of the South Central Region Tournament will take place on Saturday, March 14, the regional semifinals will be Sunday, March 15, and the regional championship will be Tuesday, March 17. All games in the regional tournament will be hosted by the top seed in the region.
