SPEARFISH, S.D. – The Colorado Mesa University men's basketball team saw an 11-point halftime lead be erased this evening as they fell in their final game of the regular season to the No. 14 Black Hills State University Yellowjackets by a score of 74-65 at the Donald E. Young Center.
The Mavericks conclude the regular season with a 19-9 (15-5 RMAC) record while finishing as the No. 2 team in the conference standings. They have already clinched an RMAC quarterfinal game and will host New Mexico Highlands next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Coming into tonight's game CMU had a chance to potentially share the RMAC regular season title with Black Hills State with a win forcing tie breakers to come into play.
Black Hills State, who had already claimed a share of the conference title, is now the outright RMAC Regular Season Champions and improves to 24-4 (17-3 RMAC). They will serve as the No.1 seed in next week's RMAC Men's Basketball Tournament.
The Mavs finish this regular season with the same number of wins as they did last year (19) while improving two games on their conference record in 2024-25 of 13-7.
In tonight's contest the Mavs led 33-23 at halftime with them using a 13-1 run to close out the final seven minutes heading into half.
Both teams traded shots heavily prior to the run with there being 10 lead changes taking place.
Despite a double-digit deficit after 20 minutes of play, the Yellowjackets were able to respond quickly into the second half with them going on a 17-4 run out of the gates and reclaiming the lead with 14:35 left to play.
The Mavs got the lead back four times to follow between the 12th and 10th minute marks but a 14-2 run allowed BHSU to retake the lead.
Colorado brought the game back to within six points in the final three minutes of play and finished going 6-for-8 from the field but were forced to foul allowing the Yellowjackets to have four of their final minute six points be from the free throw line.
In the second half alone the Yellowjackets shot 54.3 percent from the field while going 8-for-16 from deep.
The Mavs shot 43.3 percent from the field while having five different players finish in double figure scoring.
Cohenj Gonzales led the Mavs with 17 points while going 7-for-11 from the field.
Ben Henderson chipped in 14 points while both Wes Ball and Harvey White each had 12.
Clayton Jewell had 10 points while adding 14 rebounds for his team-leading seventh double-double of the season.
Cam Lowe led the Yellow Jackets with 21 points with Jackson Seale having 16.
Black Hills shot 38.5 percent from three-point range (10-for-26) while owning the rebounding advantage, 43-37.
