by Black Hills State women’s basketball held a solid defensive showing on Friday night that helped them defeat the Metro State University of Denver Roadrunners for their second conference win of the season, 58-38.
The Yellow Jackets (5-2, 2-1 RMAC) held MSU Denver to 24 percent from the floor on the night, allowing a 44 percent look in the first frame before cutting the Roadrunners off at 21 percent for the remainder of the evening.
BHSU’s defensive unit finished the night out-stealing MSUD 13-5, hauling in 44 rebounds versus 39 held by the visitors, and forcing MSUD to drop 18 turnovers on the night against 10 given up by the Yellow Jackets.
Through the night, Raven Cournoyer led BHSU with 11 points in her appearance as a starter, with the graduate guard draining 50 percent of her shots and recording a steal on defense. Ellie Moore continued to be a force in the post, throwing down 4-of-7 against MSUD and co-leading the team with five total rebounds in the contest (including a tie for second with four defensive boards).
Kaycee Groves led the BHSU bench with eight points in Friday’s victory over the Roadrunners, as the sophomore hit eight points on offense. As a defender, Groves led the team with three steals and joined Moore with four boards on the defense while dishing an assist in the attack.
MSU Denver was quick to get on the board in the first period of action with a layup in the first minute to take the first lead of the night. Though the Roadrunners used a three-point shot to wipe two layups from Gracie Haneborg and Kalla Bertram, a 14-2 run that included five points from Cournoyer, four from Moore, and five split between Bertram and Haylee Weathersby ended the quarter with the BHSU up, 18-10.
The start of the second quarter was quiet on both sides of the court through the first two minutes, but a pair of traded jumpers was met with a Morgan Hammerbeck three-ball that kept BHSU in the driver’s seat on a 23-12 scoreboard. After a network of free throws from both teams, the Yellow Jackets and Roadrunners stayed even through a 6-5 series that pulled the game into the final two minutes of the first half, in which the Green N’ Gold held a 31-18 lead over the visitors. A Cournoyer jump shot and pair of freebies from MSUD served as the closers of the first half, sending BHSU to the locker room on a 33-20 lead, their largest halftime lead on the young season.
The second half at the Young Center started with both teams slugging it out in the paint with traded layups, including a scoop n’ score from Moore that pulled BHSU to a 39-24 lead with 6:26 to go in the frame. After a cold period, Alessia Capley broke the silence with a layup and three-point play that extended the Yellow Jacket lead as BHSU held MSUD to a single layup for the rest of the quarter.
The Roadrunners were able to post a 4-2 run to start things off in the final window, but a pair of Groves layups and a three-point bank call from Weathersby siphoned any momentum MSUD had in the opening moments of the quarter. After a pair of free throws from the Roadrunners wrote a 53-36 scoreboard with four minutes to go, BHSU held MSUD to two points in the final minutes of the game and dropped five of their own, courtesy of Alivia Pautz and Kylie Sanger, to take their largest victory of the season, 58-38.
