EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Black Hills State men’s basketball fell to No. 5 seeded Northwest Missouri State, 70-57 Thursday night.
The Yellow Jackets (26-8, 17-4 RMAC) grabbed 35 rebounds as a team and shot at a 39.7 percent clip.
Joel Scott led all scorers with 19 points to go with nine rebounds and a steal.
Sindou Cisse played stout defense, holding 2-time NABC Player of the Year Trevor Hudgins to only 11 points. Cisse totaled nine points and five rebounds.
Adam Moussa scored 13 points on a trio of threes while grabbing five boards.
Both teams started slow with neither scoring over the first four minutes of play until a NMSU layup followed by a Moussa three opened the scoring and put BHSU up early, 3-2.
The Bearcats and Yellow Jackets traded buckets from there, before a Scott layup and Donovan three gave BHSU a 12-8 lead at 13:12. Later, a Hayes 3-point play and Scott layup extended the BHSU lead to 17-12.
NMSU would then go on a quick 7-0 spurt, though, to re-gain the lead 19-17 as the clock ticked under seven minutes to play. Layups from Donovan and Scott along with a trio of Cisse layups down the stretch kept the Yellow Jackets within 10 entering halftime as BHSU trailed 36-26.
Out of the break, back-to-back jumpers from Moussa helped cut into the Bearcat lead, making it 38-31. Then four straight makes between Scott and Cisse pulled BHSU within four, 43-39, with 12:54 to play.
But the Bearcats offense turned it on after that, using a 17-2 run would follow to stretch their lead to 19, 60-41 with 7:29 remaining.
BHSU kept pace with NMSU in the final minutes with a Scott layup and threes from Moussa and Hayes, but would eventually fall, 70-57.
