SAN ANGELO, Texas - March Madness for NCAA Division II basketball is set to kickoff this weekend with the NCAA DII regional tournament. The regional round will start on Friday, March 10 and go to Monday, March 13, with the South Central regionals hosted by Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas. Game one will see a battle between the No. 6 seeded Black Hills State University women's basketball squad versus their RMAC rival Regis University this Friday at 12 p.m. CT.
Games will be available to stream all weekend via the RMAC Network
HERE, or on the Lone Star Conference Digital Network
HERE. If streaming via the Lone Star Conference Digital Network, after creating an account on the LSC service, the stream will be available for free access. To sign up, click
here.
* If it asks to select a payment plan, exit the window and head back to the link
here to access the women's game, which should be located under the
Live/Upcoming tab. *
The Yellow Jackets (22-7, 17-5 RMAC) completed their regular season with a 17-5 conference mark that tied their largest win percentage (77.3 percent) since BHSU integrated into the NCAA DII and the RMAC. The Yellow Jackets then went to battle in the RMAC tournament quarterfinal round last Tuesday night against the defending champion MSU Denver Roadrunners. In a defensive slugfest, the Roadrunners were able to slip past BHSU with a 56-50 scoreboard. The incredible season from the lady Yellow Jackets, however, punched the ladies' ticket to their third NCAA tournament in the DII era as the sixth seed in the South Central region.
The Yellow Jackets boasted the best defense in allowed points per game this season, holding teams to an average 56.9 points per bout. The defense was also top-five in the conference in all opponent field goal percentages (38.6 percent FG / 29.2 percent three-point FG) and third in allowed opponent rebounds (995, 34.3 rpg).
On offense, BHSU led the conference with a 34.0 percent three-point mark that was led by the hot shooting of senior guards
Niki Van Wyk (35.4 percent) and RMAC Academic Player of the Year,
Danica Kocer (41.3 percent).
FRIDAY VS. REGIS
Also coming off a great 2022-23 campaign, the Regis Rangers finished their regular season on a six-game winning streak that saw them climb to the first seed in the conference. The Ranger women rode on the home-court advantage through the RMAC tournament, defeating the No. 8 CSU Pueblo (72-57) and the No. 4 Adams State (81-73) before taking down the No. 2 Colorado Mines in a thrilling, 65-61 matchup to secure their first RMAC title since 2007 (their fourth overall in school history).
Regis and BHSU finished the 2022-23 season 1-1 in two very solid games: on Dec. 7 at the Donald E. Young Center, both teams dueled their way into overtime where the Yellow Jackets outscored the Rangers 11-4 in the extra frame to take a hard-fought 71-64 win at home. The Rangers, however, turned the tables on the Yellow Jackets and took a 67-53 victory from the Regis Fieldhouse on February 11. Since 2012, BHSU holds an 11-7 record over the Rangers that stretches back to 2012.
Heading into this game, Regis holds a top-three offense in the RMAC in points per game (72.1 ppg), field goal percentage (41.8 percent), and were fourth in offensive rebounds (12.9 rpg on offense). While their defense is statistically middle-of-the-pack, their RMAC competition included the top two scoring offenses in Colorado Mines (73.2 ppg) and Adams State (72.9).
A FRIDAY BHSU WIN WOULD...
See the Yellow Jackets move on to the Regional semi-finals where they would play the winners of game two (No. 2 Texas Woman's vs. No. 7 Lubbock Christian).
RANGERS' LAST TIMEOUT
DENVER, Colo. – The Regis University women's basketball team completed its postseason title sweep on Saturday, defeating the Colorado School of Mines, 65-61, and complete the feat for the first time since 2006-07.
Junior guard Erin Fry led the Rangers (25-6) with a tied season-high 24 points with senior forward Sam Deem collecting a double-double over the Orediggers (24-6).
"It's not even real yet. The toughness component, those were the same keys with Adams State and valuing the basketball. Mines is an excellent defensive team, a great team," said Regis women's basketball head coach, Molly Marrin.
"Brittany [Simpson] does an amazing job, she's been coach of the year I don't know how many times in the last five. To compete with them like we have and beat them twice and in this tough battle of a game is huge. We love playing against them because we know it's going to be physical and respectful."
A fast start for the Orediggers meant that the Rangers had to show out in the second, and show out they did. A back-and-forth game between the two top teams in the league came down to the final 10 minutes.
The Rangers inflated their lead to as many as nine, doing that two times over against a strong Mines defense. Regis' offense in the second quarter was led by sophomore guard Athena Saragoza who had 10 points in those 10 minutes.
"She's such a glue for us. She's that pure shooter that keeps teams honest," said Marrin. "We've got the inside players and then we have this glue that plays inside and out. Athena keeps everybody honest and hits big shots when we need them."
Going into the half up 37-32, the Orediggers started to claw their way back and took the lead back three different times in the third quarter to set up a game that would be decided by the final 10 minutes.
A staunch Rangers defense took the reins in the fourth quarter and the Colorado School of Mines never saw the lead again after the 8:28 mark. The Regis defense strung together 14 rebounds, two of which were offensive rebounds, to limit a Mines team that spent the season shooting 41 percent on average, to 32 percent.
Back-to-back layups from Fry put the Rangers ahead, 56-53 at the 7:02 mark. With another jumper from the RMAC Player of the Year, the Rangers kept the game out of the Orediggers reach at 56-532 with another 11 rebounds to prevent any more Mines points. With a made free throw at the :02 mark, graduate student forward Erin Stroberg sealed the win for the Rangers.
LAST MATCHUP: BHSU vs. RU (Feb. 11)
DENVER, Colo. - Black Hills State University women's basketball tipped off against Regis on Saturday afternoon from Denver, Colorado, falling to the Rangers 67-53 despite a fast start in the first quarter.
The Yellow Jackets (17-6, 12-5 RMAC) were 23-of-62 from the field, 4-of-20 from beyond the arc, and 3-10 from the charity stripe. Despite the loss, the BHSU defense played tough as they out-stole the Rangers 10-4 and out-blocked them 3-2.
The two double-digit scorers for the Yellow Jackets this afternoon was
Danica Kocer, who led the team, and
Niki Van Wyk as each athlete scored 13 and 11, respectively. Kocer was 5-of-13, with two of those from downtown while Van Wyk was 5-of-16 and 1-of-8 on her triples. Van Wyk led in rebounds with five, of which four were defensive boards.
After a
Danica Kocer layup kicked off the matchup with BHSU on top, both teams exchanged consecutive scores until a Regis triple gave the Rangers an 8-7 lead. A pair of
Ellie Moore layups kicked off a 9-0 scoring run from the Yellow Jackets, expanding their lead to 15-7. The Rangers were able to rack up a 7-2 series up to the final minute of the frame, but a Kocer trey and a
Summer Fox layup ended the quarter with BHSU on top, 22-14.
Both teams slugged out a 5-4 start to the quarter until an 8-0 burst from Regis pulled the scoreboard to a 26-24 BHSU lead by the halfway mark. Three minutes later, hot shooting from the Rangers allowed for them to run up an 11-3 series to lead 35-29 with 1:14 to go in the half. A Kocer free throw was the last point for the Yellow Jackets in the quarter, sending the ladies to halftime down by five.
BHSU was able to pull within three at the start of quarter three and duked it out with Regis for most of the quarter. The Rangers and Yellow Jackets remained even throughout to keep the game a five-point advantage for Regis, who led 49-44 heading into the fourth.
Regis started the quarter, 4-3, to expand their lead by seven before a three-point play from
Alessia Capley pulled the Yellow Jackets within four of Regis. A
Kalla Bertram layup and foul gave the Yellow Jackets a chance to make it a one-point contest, but a defensive board and layup later became a 7-0 run for Regis to expand their lead to a more imposing 60-51 lead with 3:25 to go in the game.
The remainder of regulation was largely controlled by the Rangers, who held BHSU to one Van Wyk layup while cashing in seven of their own points to hand BHSU the 67-53 road loss.
Coaches
In his 21st season as head coach of the Yellow Jackets,
Mark Nore led BHSU to their sixth RMAC tournament appearance in a row, with their NCAA tournament appearance this season marking the third time the BHSU ladies have competed in the tournament since their DII integration in 2010.
Molly Marrin enters her eighth season as the head women's basketball coach at Regis University in 2022-23. Marrin led Regis to their first RMAC title since the 2006-7 season and their second NCAA tournament appearance under her as well (seventh in school history).
-BHSUAthletics.com-
