Black Hills State University jumped out to an early 8-1 lead and never looked back against the Western New Mexico University women’s basketball team as the Yellow Jackets claimed the 76-47 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference victory on Saturday.
BHSU (8-1, 5-0 RMAC) continued what has been a dominant start to the season as they led from the start and posted their sixth straight win.
Following a Deandra Williams free throw to get WNMU (5-5, 3-2 RMAC) on the board at 2-1, the Yellow Jackets came back with a 6-0 run to move ahead 8-1. The Lady Mustangs were able to trim the deficit back to six a couple of times throughout the first quarter the first time on a Jade Botelho jumper and then on a pair from the line by Jordan Gutierrez made the score 15-9 with three minutes left in the opening quarter.
BHSU closed the final three minutes strong going on an 8-2 run to take a 23-11 lead through the first 10 minutes.
Cristiana Yepa brought the Lady Mustangs as close as they would get the rest of the first half as her three-pointer at the 5:19 mark made it a 27-18 contest. Similar to the first quarter, BHSU closed the quarter strong going on an 11-6 run to take a 38-24 lead into the locker room.
The Yellow Jackets continued with the pressure to start the third quarter as they began on an 11-0 run over the first four minutes.
WNMU did close the game strong finishing on a 9-0 run with Kenzie Rinehart starting the final spurt with a trey. Gutierrez then dialed long distance on back-to-back possessions to close the scoring.
Botelho led the Lady Mustangs in scoring once again going for 10 points on 5-10 shooting and also added four rebounds and a block. Gutierrez added eight points and four steals. WNMU made just 16-40 (32) from the field and went 4-14 (28.6) from three point range. They shot well at the charity stripe connecting on 11-15 (73.3).
Taylor Trohkimoinen paced BHSU and all-scorers going for 14 points and added six rebounds. The Yellow Jackets made 26-60 (43.3) and went 7-19 (36.8) from three point range. They were also solid from the free throw line hitting on 17-21 (81).
WNMU will now have the next week off before hosting Colorado School of Mines on New Year’s Day beginning at 5:30 p.m. FREE admission will be available for the game. Come out and celebrate the New Year with the Lady Mustangs!