Jackets excited for NCAA Tournament

BHSU photo

Black Hills State junior Joel Scott goes up for a shot against Chadron State earlier this season.

It’s been a year of firsts for the Black Hills State University men’s basketball team.

The Yellow Jackets won their first-ever outright Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference regular-season title with a 17-4 record. They won their first RMAC Tournament title with a 69-66 win over Regis University, which qualified them for their first-ever berth in the NCAA Division II Tournament. Also this week, the Jackets earned their first Top 25 D-2 ranking in the NABC National Coaches' Poll.

The Jackets, ranked 22nd in the country, will look to keep their season going Saturday as the No. 3 seed of the South Central Region, facing No. 6 Dallas Baptist University at the Rip Griffin Center on the campus of Lubbock Christian University in Lubbock, Texas. Tipoff is set for 11 a.m. Mountain Time.

“I’m just so happy for our guys to be in this spot, to accomplish some firsts for our program,” BHSU head coach Ryan Thompson said. “There are so many people that deserve credit for this. We’ve had great administration, prior and present; it starts there. It’s also our community support and our boosters. We have just so many people behind us, so many people who have played a role in allowing us to have these type of student athletes in our program. And we have had some guys step up. They step up in key moments and put the team on their backs when they need to.”

Black Hills State junior forward Joel Scott, the RMAC Tournament MVP and first-team all-conference performer, said it is special to be part of the BHSU program.

“I have never been a part of something where the community and everyone is so involved,” he said. “All the boosters come up and say ‘hi.’ They are super friendly and super fun to be a part of. It is fun to go out and play basketball. We have the best coach in the conference and he puts us in these positions to play the best that we can. It is a blessing.”

Yellow Jacket junior guard Adam Moussa credits their success to Thompson, the RMAC Coach of the Year this season, his second honor in the past three years.

“We definitely put in a lot of work in the fall and throughout the year, but the most important difference in all of these games has been coaching,” Moussa said. “When you have a coach that trusts you so much, like 3-of-12 (shooting) and he keeps you on the court at the end of the game, we all play so free on offense. Some of these teams are timid because they don’t know what is going to happen.”

Getting to the Dance

The Yellow Jackets (22-7) advanced to their first ever NCAA Tournament in program history Saturday in front of a packed Donald E. Young Center Saturday night in Spearfish.

Trailing 60-53 with 7 minutes, 49 seconds remaining, the Yellow Jackets relied on their defense and Scott on offense.

BHSU had four straight stops defensively on two missed shots and two turnovers to get back in the game. Scott led the team with 29 points (8-of-11 from the field) and nine rebounds along with three steals and a block.

“Everyone was super excited,” Scott said. “We had a long season, along stretch and in these last three games we wanted to prove that we were the best team in the conference. That’s what we did on the defensive end and the offensive end.”

When the Yellow Jackets fell behind Regis, they turned to their defense, and in doing so, Moussa said it all started by getting in their stance.

“We’ve had moments where we are standing straight up, but when we get in the stance we are one of the best defensive teams in the conference,” he said. “All that matters is when we score a basket, we look over at the coaches and they are saying ‘get in a stance,’ and that helps us a lot.”

Richard Anderson photo

Black Hills State junior Adam Moussa, center, plays defense last week during the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference quarterfinal game against New Mexico Highlands.

Black Hills State moved to the RMAC title game after thumping New Mexico Highlands 102-76 and holding off UC-Colorado Springs 86-77.

“If you are going to win a championship, you have to do it in different ways,” Thompson said. “Some nights you get up the floor and play tempo and some nights you have to grind it out and find a way to get stops.”

Scott leads the team in scoring and rebounding at 23.4 points and 10.5 rebounds a game. Senior guard Sindou Cisse is scoring 15.0 points a game, followed by Moussa at 14.1 points a game. Senior Sava Dukic is first off the bench at 8.4 points a game.

As a team, the Jackets are scoring 79.66 points a game, giving up 75.10 points per contest.

Great Scott

Along with his RMAC Player of the Year and all-conference honors, Scott was named D2CCA First Team All Region Friday morning. Scott currently leads the nation in defensive rebounding, averaging 8.79 per game. He ranks in the Top 10 nationally in seven statistical categories: first in defensive rebounds per game, fourth in points per game, fourth in field goals made (250), fourth in double-doubles (18), fifth in total points (678), eighth in total rebounds (305) and ninth in free throw attempts (195).

Additionally, Scott leads the RMAC in seven different statistical categories and is Top 3 in 13 categories. With his 678 points this season, he is 56 points away from breaking BHSU's all-time record for points in a season which is currently held by Kim Templeton, who scored 733 points in the 1975-76 season. That's the only other time a Yellow Jacket has surpassed 700 points in a single season.

Scott is also on track to finish the season with the best scoring average in a season for BHSU, besting his current record of 20.7, which he set last year.

In the RMAC Tournament, Scott scored 85 points on 34-of-41 shooting and grabbed 24 rebounds. He was 23-of-27 from the field and scored 63 points in the last two games.

“It is like something you see on a video game, playing on rookie mode,” Moussa said of Scott in the tournament. “I’m honestly speechless; I don’t know what else to say.”

Scouting Dallas Baptist

Dallas Baptist, 17-11 on the season and 10-5 in the Lone Star Conference, is no stranger to the NCAA Tournament, entering its fifth-straight appearance at the event. The Patriots are averaging 73 points per game and shooting at a 46.4 percent clip from the field.

The Patriots are led by Ricky Lujan at 12.6 points per game, followed by Cameron Kahn at 12.4 ppg., Austin Garner at 10.5 ppg. and Carson Hughes at 10.2 ppg.

The Dallas Baptist defense was ranked first in the Lone Star Conference with 15.79 forced turnovers per game, second in turnover margin (3.6) and steals per game (8.0), and third in total steals (223).

DBU fell to Midwestern State in the Lone Star Conference quarterfinals last week in Frisco, Texas, 82-66.

"We are so excited and thankful for the opportunity to play again in the NCAA Tournament,” said DBU head coach Blake Flickner, in his 17th season at the helm. “There are so many good teams in our region and it is no small feat to receive a bid. We've played six of the other seven teams in the regional already this year. Black Hills is the only team we haven't played yet, so that is an exciting matchup. They've obviously had an incredible year and we know it will be a huge test for us. They will be the favorite as the No. 3 seed, so we'll have to bring our best."

Tournament Central

The South Central Regional consist of six teams from the Lone Star Conference and two from the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The other first-round games Saturday include No. 2 West Texas A&M vs. No. 7 Angelo State at 1:30 p.m. (MT), No. 1 Lubbock Christian vs. No. 8 Texas A&M Commerce at 4 p.m. and No. 4 Colorado Mesa vs. No. 5 Texas A&M-Kingsville at 6:30 p.m.

If the Jackets get past Dallas Baptist, they’ll advance to the round of 32 to face the winner of West Texas A&M and Angelo State. The semifinals are set for 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, with the championship game at 6 p.m. Tuesday.