The Yellow Jackets snapped Colorado Mesa University’s (CMU) 16 game winning streak at home as they fell 73-75 in overtime.
Redshirt senior guard Jared Small finished the game with a season-high of 18 points as he shot six for nine from the field. Small also pulled down six rebounds and dished out five assists in the game as well.
“I feel like my team was finding me in open spots, making it tough for my guy to close out because they know I can shoot and have to guard me off the dribble. Honestly, I have to give it to my team on that one. They were finding me when I was open, putting me in the right position to score, coach drew up some good plays for me,” Small said.
Joel Scott led Black Hills State University (BHSU) and the game in scoring with 27 points in the game.
Small put the Mavericks up by three points with 22 seconds left in the regulation as he was sent to the free-throw line and made both shots. BHSU’s Sava Dukic hit the biggest shot of the game with seven seconds left in regulation as he buried a three-pointer from the top of the arc to send the game into overtime.
Small got the Mavericks started in the overtime period as he had a strong take to the basket which resulted in a foul that sent him to the free-throw line. Small went one of two at the line and gave CMU a 66-65 lead with 4:13 left in overtime.
BHSU answered with four straight points to go up by three with two minutes remaining in the game. Both teams traded baskets before Sindou Cisse put the Yellow Jackets up by four points with 35 seconds left in the game which forced the Mavericks to try to get a quick steal or foul.
Adam Moussa went to the free-throw line with 15 seconds left and hit both shots to put BHSU up by six points. Redshirt freshman guard Blaise Threatt then went to the line for CMU and went one for two. The Mavericks got the offensive rebound off Threatt’s missed free-throw attempt, and redshirt senior guard Georgie Dancer hit a three-pointer over his defender with just two seconds left in the game.
The second half was played with a ton of physicality in the paint, and it resulted in 22 total fouls in the half. Both teams shot 10 or more free throws in the second half and CMU went 13 of 14 from the charity stripe in the half.
Both redshirt freshman guard Mac Riniker and redshirt freshman forward Trevor Baskin fouled out of the game in the second half, and they were the two tasked with covering Scott.
“I was proud of the way the guys fought and we really felt like the key was not getting Mac [Riniker] in foul trouble tonight to get it done. He had to sit out in the first half and then he had to sit out multiple times with foul trouble in the second half. Not getting him in there as much as we like, Mac played 18 minutes, and Scott played 38 minutes, so for 20 minutes of the game [Scott] was on the floor when Mac wasn’t. The other guys did a good job fighting hard, but he was the matchup that we really needed to be able to do that, but unfortunately, we couldn’t keep him out of foul trouble,” Head Coach Mike DeGeorge said.
Scott scored exactly half of BHSU’s point in the second half as he scored 15 of their 30 points in the half.
In the final ten minutes of the second half, the game was tied up on five different occasions with the lead changed four times. Redshirt freshman guard Reece Johnson put the Mavericks up by four points with 7:32 left in regulation as he got to the free-throw line and went one of two.
The Yellow Jackets answered with five straight points to take a one-point lead one minute later. Both teams went back-and-forth lead before the Mavericks built a five-point lead with 2:43 left in regulation.
Dukic and Scott quickly tied the game back up at 58. Threatt came back a nailed a three-pointer over his defender to put the Mavericks back up by 3.
Scott then cut the lead back down to one point twice in the final 40 seconds of regulation. With 24 seconds left in regulation, Scott backed down his defender to finish at the rim to bring BHSU within one point. Small lifted CMU’s lead up to three points before Dukic sent it into overtime with a three-pointer.
Both Threatt and Small scored eight points to lead the Mavericks in scoring in the second half.
The Mavericks shot 38.7% from the field in the game and 28% from behind the three-point arc in the game.
“I feel like losing Ethan [Menzies] two weeks before the first game put us in a tough spot because our whole offense is based around a Georgie [Dancer] and Ethan ball-screen. So, we are just trying to figure that out, just figuring out how we are going to get open looks and it feels like it is starting to come together now,” Small said. “As crappy as tonight is, it’s making us look forward to the future, we are definitely finding some rhythm in the offense.”
CMU’s next game is Saturday, Dec. 11 at 7:30 p.m. against Chadron State College in Brownson Arena.
