Brinlee McRae had a career-high 31 points and a season-high six three pointers as the Yellow Jackets three point shooting carried them to an RMAC Quarterfinals win over the four seed Western Colorado making it the only first round upset in both the men’s and women’s tournament. Brinlee McRae went 12-19 (.631) and made 6-7 (.857) threes to help BHSU win the game. Taylin Serlen added 16 as well.
QUICK DETAILS
Score: Black Hills State 77, Western Colorado 62
Team Records: Black Hills State 18-10 (14-6 RMAC), Western Colorado 16-11 (14-6 RMAC)
Attendance: 303
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Western’s Alyssa Eckroth started the game with a three on the first shot attempt of the match. McRae answered with a three to tie it up, before WCU went on a 9-2 run with Jayda Maves making another three and a jumper to take a 12-5 lead. BHSU answered with a 9-0 run with McRae, Maureen Ulrich, and Bradie Schlabs each hitting threes to take a 14-12 lead before Ivey Schmidt went on a solo 4-0 run to take the lead back and Serlen ended the quarter with a layup to tie it at 16.
- The Mountaineers started the second quarter on a 4-0 run and BHSU was held scoreless for the first 3:30 of the quarter before Emily Cooper hit a three to make it 20-19. BHSU then took over and went on a 15-5 run to end the half. This was fueled by three three-pointers from McRae and a jumper from her too to put her into the half with 19 points. Serlen also added four points in the run as well with BHSU entering half up 34-26.
- Halftime leaders for the Yellow Jackets include Brinlee McRae who had 19 points and four rebounds. It also included Serlen who had six points. On the Western side, Maves and Schmidt both had eight points while Eckroth had six. The Yellow Jackets made eight threes in the first half and shot 47.1 percent on them.
- Serlen started the half with a layup and then after that it was pretty much back and forth with no team scoring two baskets in a row until 3:17 remaining in the quarter when Eckroth hit a three after to cut the lead to seven at 42-35. Ulrich immediately answered with a three to make it 45-35 and McRae hit a jumper and a layup to make it 49-35 making it a 7-0 run. Western scored five in a row to make it 49-40 with a three from Maves before Schlabs hit a buzzer-beater three to take a 12-point 52-40 lead going into the final period.
- Western started the fourth on an 8-2 run through the first 3:35 of the quarter to cut the lead to 56-48. McRae quieted the crowd with her sixth three to bring the score to 59-48. She then hit another jumper to make it 61-48. After some back-and-forth play that saw the score jump to 66-56 when McRae got a three-point play to make it 69-56 and then the free throw game started and BHSU went 8-8 from the charity stripe in the final minute with Schlabs making four of them to send BHSU into the semis by beating the Mountaineers 77-62.
- The Yellow Jackets shot 47.8 percent from three tonight on 23 shots making 11 of them. They also shot 45.2 percent from the floor and made 10-12 free throws. They held WCU to one of it’s worst shooting nights of the year where they went 36.1 percent from the field and 27.8 percent from three. The Mountaineers were shooting 36.3 percent from three coming into this game which was seventh in the country.
BLACK HILLS STATE STATISTICAL LEADERS:
Brinlee McRae: 31 points (Career-High), 8 rebounds
Taylin Serlen: 16 points
Maureen Ulrich: 10 points, 9 rebounds
Bradie Schlabs: 10 points, 6 assists
UP NEXT
The Yellow Jackets will now head to Grand Junction for the RMAC Tournament Semifinals where they will face the home team and the #4 team in the country Colorado Mesa for the second time in a week and third time this season.
