by SPEARFISH, S.D.—Black Hills State University women’s basketball looked to escape the rest of the pack in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Friday night. The Yellow Jackets entered Friday night in third place with MSU-Denver, CSU-Pueblo and Colorado Christian. The first team standing in the way of BHSU on the weekend was Regis University.
The Yellow Jackets defeated Regis 75-65 on the Rangers’ home floor Dec. 20. Regis has been playing good basketball of late, winning three of their last four games. The blemish came in their last contest when they fell 66-63 to Colorado Mesa University on Jan. 24. The Rangers’ stellar play continued Friday night with a 62-59 win over the Yellow Jackets.
BHSU falls to 10-8, 8-6 RMAC while Regis improves to 12-6, 8-6 RMAC.
Regis opened the contest with a 4-0 lead with 18:44 left in the first half. Logan Cowan answered the bell with back-to-back layups and a free throw to give the Yellow Jackets a 5-4 lead at the 16:06 mark of the first half.
Unfortunately, the Rangers responded with a 15-6 run to take their biggest lead of the game at 19-11 with 7:45 left in the first half.
BHSU found a shot of adrenaline from that point forward and Taylor Trohkimoinen was a big reason why. She nailed a three-pointer to put the Yellow Jackets within one point at 27-26 with 2:59 left in the first half. Trohkimoinen was later sent to the free throw line on an offensive foul call that was eventually reversed in favor of the Yellow Jackets.
Trohkimoinen hit the free throw to tie the game 27-27 with 2:28 left in the first half. BHSU closed the half with a 6-3 run to take a 33-31 lead at intermission.
The Rangers jumped to a 37-33 in the opening minute of the second half. The contest featured six different lead changes until Trohkimoinen hit a three-pointer with 7:56 left in the second half to give the Yellow Jackets a 52-50 lead.
BHSU held the lead until the 4:58 mark of the second half when a Kaycee Hert layup gave the Rangers a 55-54 lead. It was a game of chess from that point as there were four different lead changes. However, it was the Rangers holding on to the ball last.
A pair of Kaycee Hert free throws with 2:41 left in the game gave Regis the lead for good at 59-58. The Yellow Jackets were in foul mode during the final minute, but couldn’t find an answer to the Rangers down the stretch.
Chelsey Biegler (Cheyenne River Sioux) led BHSU with 13 points. Biegler’s made free throw with 9:01 left in the second half put her in sole possession of first place in Black Hills State University’s career free throw list with 376. She passed Katelynn Lamb, who converted on 375 career free throws from 2007-11.
The Yellow Jackets will return to action tomorrow, Jan. 31 when they take on Metro State University-Denver. Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m.
