by Black Hills State University women’s basketball defeated Colorado Mesa 68-62 Monday afternoon in the Donald E Young Center.
The Yellow Jackets (10-7, 8-3 RMAC) stay perfect at home and move to fifth in the RMAC after taking down the Mavericks (12-4, 7-4 RMAC).
Danica Kocer helped pace the Yellow Jackets offense as she scored a career high 20 points on the night.
Ashley Davis (Ojibwe) was dominate on offense again sinking four field goals and making all seven of her free throw attempts for 17 points.
Megan Engesser led the team on defense recording six boards and a steal.
The first quarter of play was all about three-point plays for the Yellow Jackets as the team would sink two shots from downtown and complete a handful of three-point plays. This hot shooting helped the Yellow Jackets take an 18-17 lead into the second quarter.
The Mavericks would snag their largest lead of the game in the second quarter taking a three-point lead over the Yellow Jackets with 8:50 to play in the second. However, the Yellow Jacket defense was heating up and held the Mavericks to just 11 points in the quarter. Meanwhile the Yellow Jacket offense racked up 21 points taking their largest lead of the game with 1:27 left to play in the half. Into the break BHSU led the Mavericks 39-28.
The Mavericks came out of the break dominate on defense holding BHSU to just eight points. The Yellow Jackets battled through the quarter and would hold on to a slight lead coming out of the quarter behind a pair of free throws by Danica Kocer going into the final ten minutes of play up, 47-45.
The Yellow Jackets and Mavericks stayed competitive throughout the fourth quarter with BHSU holding a slight lead over CMU for much of the quarter. However, with 1:30 left to play the Mavericks would tie it up at 60 on a three-point play of their own. The Yellow Jackets finished out the quarter perfect from the charity stripe making 8 of 8 attempts to seal the 68-62 victory and stay undefeated at the Young Center.
The Yellow Jackets shot 33.3% from the floor making 17 of 51 attempts and made 6 of 22 from downtown for a 27.3 shooting percentage from beyond the arc.
At the charity stripe BHSU made 28 of 33 attempts for their best free throw percentage of the year 84.8%.
