PUEBLO, Colo. – Colorado State University Pueblo women's basketball shot a season-low 31 percent from the field and made just five of its 23 three-point attempts as the ThunderWolves saw its two-game win streak halted here Saturday evening with a 56-49 setback to Black Hills State University in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action at Massari Arena.
With the setback, CSU Pueblo falls to 10-9 overall and remains in a tie for fifth place in the RMAC standings with a 7-6 mark, while Black Hills State improves to 14-3 overall and 9-2 in the league.
At halftime of Saturday's game, the CSU Pueblo Athletics Department presented championship rings to the school's men's golf team that captured its second straight RMAC Championship in 2022, along with winning the school's first-ever NCAA West/South Central Regional and finished fifth overall at the 2022 NCAA Division II National Championships.
Against the Yellow Jackets, the Pack led 42-41 following a fast-break lay-up from sophomore guard
Landri Hudson (Aurora, Colo./Wyoming) just 13 seconds into the fourth quarter, but the Jackets would outscore CSU Pueblo 15-7 over the final eight-plus minutes of the game to seal its victory and drop the Pack to 8-3 at home this season.
Graduate student guard
JaNaiya Davis (Hewitt, Texas/Midway) led the way offensively for the Pack as she scored 14 points and added nine rebounds, four assists and a season-high tying five steals. With her 14 points, Davis pushes her career scoring total to 1,393 points and is now seven points shy of becoming the fifth player in school history to score 1,400 career points.
In addition to Davis, Hudson added 12 points and a career-high five assists in the loss.
The 49 points marked just the fourth time this season that CSU Pueblo had scored under 50 points, and it came against a BHSU defense that entered the game allowing just 56.4 points per game. The Jackets have now held its last four opponents to less than 55 points, including three opponents scoring under 50 points.
It appeared early-on in Saturday's game that BHSU was going to run away with the game as the Jackets scored the first 11 points of the game and led 11-0 just a little over four minutes into the contest.
Following that scoring flurry by the Jackets, the Pack used an 8-3 run to pull within six points at 14-8 following a trey from Hudson with 1:39 left in the opening period. BHSU, though, would close the quarter by scoring three of the final five points to hold a 17-10 lead after 10 minutes of play.
The Pack opened the second quarter by scoring 11 of the first 17 points to pull within 23-21 with 4:19 left in the period. The run began with a lay-up by Davis and was capped by a 3-pointer from graduate student guard
Morgan Dial (Denver City, Texas/Western Texas College).
BHSU responded by closing the quarter on an 11-5 run to take a 34-26 lead at the half.
In the first half, BHSU shot 55 percent from the field and 50 percent (7-for-14) from the 3-point line, while CSU Pueblo shot 35 percent from the field and 39 percent (5-for-13) from the 3-point line.
The Pack, though, would make a move in the third quarter as after trailing 38-32 following two free throws from Summer Fox with 5:30 left in the quarter, they reeled off eight consecutive points, including taking a 40-38 lead following a lay-up by senior guard
Amaya Lewis (Hobbs, N.M./New Mexico JC) with 1:34 left in the period. That would be the biggest lead of the game for CSU Pueblo.
BHSU would close the quarter by scoring the final three points to take a 41-40 lead after the third quarter.
Danica Kocer paced the Yellow Jackets with a game-high 20 points and added five rebounds, while Ellie Moore added 13 points, five rebounds and four steals in the win.
The Pack were outrebounded, 43-28, but the Pack forced BHSU into 21 turnovers that led 16 points for the ThunderWolves. Both teams blocked two shots in the game.
While CSU Pueblo shot 31 percent from the field and 22 percent from the 3-point line, Black Hills State finished the game shooting 36 percent from the field and 35 percent from the 3-point line.
Black Hills State also held a 26-13 edge in free throw attempts as the Jackets went 19-for-26 (73 percent) at the line, while CSU Pueblo was 8-for-13 (61.5 percent) from the charity stripe.
CSU Pueblo will look to start a new winning streak this coming Friday, Jan. 27 with a 5 p.m. game in Denver, Colo., against Regis University, who is in second place in the RMAC with a 10-2 league record and a 13-5 overall record following a 71-58 win on Saturday at Chadron State.
