SPEARFISH, S.D. – Colorado State University Pueblo women's basketball saw its 2024-25 season come to an end here in the quarterfinal round of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament here Tuesday evening as the fifth-seeded ThunderWolves fell 73-43 to fourth-seeded Black Hills State at A2 Arena.

With the setback, the Pack ends the campaign with an 18-11 record, while Black Hills State improved to 18-10 and advances to a semifinal round match-up Friday at top-seeded Colorado Mesa. The 18 wins were the most in a season for the Pack since posting a 23-9 record in 2021-22. The Pack tied for fourth in the RMAC regular season standings with a 13-7 league record.

The Pack made its third straight and 22nd overall all-time appearance in the RMAC Tournament and moved its record to 28-16 all-time in the tournament. The Pack lost in the quarterfinal round for the second time in its last three tournament appearances and is now 14-8 all-time in the first round of the RMAC Tournament.

Tuesday's game marked the final collegiate games for the Pack's seven seniors and those seven seniors are guard Tosjanae Bonds (Denver, Colo./MSU Denver), guard Yara Garcia (Scottsbluff, Neb./Western Nebraska CC), guard Shamahra Henderson (Thornton, Colo./Cowley County CC), guard Landri Hudson (Aurora, Colo./University of Wyoming), guard Tomia Johnson (Colorado Springs, Colo./Florida Gulf Coast), forward Alisha Little (Aurora, Colo./University of Northern Colorado), forward Autumn Watts (Highlands Ranch, Colo./McNeese State).

Perhaps the play of the night came with 6:46 left in the second period when Kaila Bertram hit Little with an inadvertent elbow to the nose knocking the two-time All-American out for the remainder of the game. When Little left the game, the Pack led 19-18.

Little, who suffered a broken nose on the play, finished the game with eight points, five rebounds and one blocked shot to close out her record setting career. With her eight points, she finishes the season with 723 points, which is third on the RMAC's single season scoring chart and tops on the school's single-game scoring chart. She tallied 2,621 career points, which is second all-time in state of Colorado history and finished as the state's all-time leader in both rebounds (1,783) and blocked shots (434), along with holding CSU Pueblo school career records for scoring (1,801), scoring average (20.7), field goals made (659), blocked shots (294) and double-doubles (52).  

On the play, Little was initially called for a travel, but after a video review, the travel was reversed and Bertram was called for an intentional foul. Hudson would step to the free throw line in place of Little and drill two free throws to give the Pack a 21-18 lead.

Following Hudson's free throws, Henderson scored on a reverse lay-up with 6:37 left I the period to give the Pack a 23-18 lead. That would be the largest lead of the game for the Pack.

The Yellow Jackets, who have now won four straight games in the series against the Pack, scored four straight points to tie the game at 23 with 4:48 left in the second period.

Hudson, who finished her career with 144 treys, which is sixth on the school's all-time chart, gave the Pack a 3-point lead following her third trey of the game with 4:30 left to give the Pack a 26-23 lead. BHSU, though, scored six straight points to take a 29-26 lead with 3:03 left in the period. After Johnson hit a lay-up with 2:26 left to cut BHSU's lead to 29-28, the 'Jackets closed the period on a 4-2 run to take a 33-30 halftime lead.

Bonds paced the Pack offensively as she tallied 17 points, including scoring 13 points in the fourth period. In addition to Bonds, Hudson added 13 points, while Johnson tallied eight points and three steals to push her career total to 205 steals, which is fifth on the school's career chart.

The Pack jumped out to a 10-8 lead just 3:40 left in the opening period, before Bertram tied the game on a lay-up with 3:15 left in the period. Following Bertram's lay-up, the Pack scored five straight points thanks to a trey from Hudson and a basket by Little to give the Pack a 15-10 lead.

After Bradie Schlabs brought BHSU to 15-13 with 30 seconds left in the period, before Garcia scored a lay-up right before the buzzer to take a 17-13 lead after the opening 10 minutes of play.

Without Litlte in the game, the Yellow Jackets outscored the Pack 29-10 in the third period to take a 62-40 lead heading to the final 10 minutes of play. In the period, BHSU shot 65 percent from the field and 63 percent from the 3-point line, while the Pack shot 33 percent and 17 percent from downtown.

BHSU opened the final period on a 13-3 run to push out to a 75-43 lead with 4:48 left in the game. The Pack, though, would close the game by scoring 13 of the final 20 points to cap the scoring. Bonds scored eight of those final 13 points for the Pack.

Bertram paced BHSU with 19 points, while Gracie Haneborg tallied a double-double of 16 points and 15 rebounds. Morgan Hammerbeck also scored 16 points and had five assists, while Schlabs scored 15 points, had five rebounds and eight assists in the win.

For the game, the Pack shot 40 percent from the field and 23 percent (5-for-22) from the 3-point line, while BHSU shot 50 percent from the field and 42 percent (10-for-24) from the 3-point line.

BHSU held a 40-25 edge on the boards and the Pack committed 11 turnovers that led to 12 points for the 'Jackets. BHSU had seven turnovers on the night.

The Pack finished with seven assists and seven steals, while BHSU had 21 assists and six steals. Both teams each recorded a blocked shot.

CSU Pueblo finished 9-for-13 (69.2 percent) from the free throw line, while BHSU was 12-for-17 (70.6 percent) at the line.