SPEARFISH, S.D. --- The Western Colorado men's basketball team battled tough against Black Hills State and had a glimmer of hope when James Willis drained a 3-pointer as he was fouled with 59 seconds remaining to get the Mountaineer deficit to three points, but they couldn't find their way all the way back and fell to the Yellow Jackets 78-74 on Friday at the Young Center.
 
After Willis' four-point play for WCU (5-7, 2-4) made it 71-68 BHSU (7-5, 4-2) with under a minute left, the Yellow Jackets used clock and scored in the paint to make it 73-68 with 34 seconds left. Cole Sienknecht drained a 3-pointer with 12 seconds remaining to cut the deficit to two at 75-73.
 
Following the Yellow Jackets splitting a pair of free throws to make it a three-point advantage, BHSU fouled Sienknecht intentionally before he could get in range for a possible game-tying 3-pointer. The sophomore split the free throws to make it a two-point game and BHSU closed it out with a pair of free throws with five seconds left to make the final 78-74.
 
The Mountaineers led in the game 48-47 after a Matthew Ragsdale layup with 12:21 remaining, but the Yellow Jackets went on a 12-2 run to take an 11-point lead and WCU slowly crawled back into the game from there before falling short.
 
Ragsdale, a freshman, led WCU with a career-high 19 points – including going 3-for-4 from 3-point range. Sienknecht finished with 13 points while Jackson Ehrlin added 12. As a team, the Mountaineers went 8-for-14 from 3-point range and shot 49.1 percent from the field. On the other side, BHSU shot 57.1 percent from the field, including going 7-for-18 from 3-point range.
 
The Mountaineers close out the road trip 6 p.m. Saturday as they travel to take on South Dakota Mines.