DENVER – The Regis University women's basketball team continued its enjoyable ride in the new year but needed overtime in order to eclipse South Dakota Mines, 66-63, at Regis Field House on Friday.
 
How It Happened: Down 57-54 with 8 seconds left in regulation, junior forward Whitney Jacob drilled a trey to tie the game, 57-57, and sent the contest into overtime.
 
This was succeeded with a 3-pointer from senior forward Jaz'Myne Snipes and gave the Rangers an outright 60-57 lead with 4:06 remaining in overtime.
 
Nearly two minutes later, junior guard Emma Sterkel's jumper buffered the Regis lead, 64-59, which put the game out of reach for the Hardrockers.
 
Though it took several minutes, RU first acquired a late lead in the first quarter during a 9-0 run to close out the opening 10 minutes. The run started on freshman guard Kali Murrell's tying jumper, 8-8, with 3:48 left and ended on a layup from Snipes with 16 seconds to go in the first to put the Rangers up, 15-8. 
 
Regis first grabbed the lead on free throws from junior guard Grace O'Neill, giving RU a 10-8 lead at the 2:15 mark of the first.
 
The Rangers led by as many as nine and capped off the run at 11-0 when O'Neill hit a layup to grow the Regis advantage to 17-8 with 8:31 left in the second.
 
Later in the second, South Dakota Mines closed out the first half on a 6-0 run, which eventually grew to a 10-0 run, with treys by junior guard Michaela Shaklee and senior guard Sami Steffeck at the 3:13 and 2:29 marks of the second, respectively, that trimmed the Rangers' lead to two. The latter basket made the score, 25-23.
 
Though Regis emerged from halftime with a slim 25-23 lead, it surrendered it as SDSMT closed its aforementioned 10-0 run with freshman guard Sydney Leeper's go-ahead jumper that gave the Hardrockers a 27-25 advantage with 9:09 remaining in the third.
 
However, junior guard Tashika Burrell answered with a 6-0 run of her own in the form of three jumpers in a row with the final points of the run coming with 8:08 left in the third quarter and made the score in favor of RU, 31-27.
 
But redshirt sophomore guard Ryan Weiss scored South Dakota Mines' final five points of the third, and her free throws with 4 seconds to go in the third put SDSMT up by three, 38-35. Those free throws commenced an 8-0 run for the Hardrockers.
 
A 3-pointer from Weiss brought the South Dakota Mines' lead to as high as nine, 44-35, with 8:52 left in the fourth.
 
The Rangers did not give up by any means and emerged from their deficit with an 11-0 run. This run kicked off on O'Neill's layup with 8:37 to go in the fourth and was capped by Jacob's tie-breaking layup to give Regis a small 46-44 lead with 6:45 left in regulation.
 
Four ties followed including the previously mentioned final one that forced overtime.  
 
Game Notes: O'Neill had a team-high 15 points to go along with eight rebounds, one assist, one block and one steal. Jacob grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds and had seven points, one assist, one block and one steal. Sterkel's game-high four assists accompanied her nine points and five rebounds. Freshman forward Sydney Speights had a game-high two blocks in addition to her six rebounds. Burrell finished with 14 points, six rebounds and three assists, while Snipes ended with 13 points, seven rebounds and one steal.
 
While the final result was close, RU dominated SDSMT with points in the paint by a 38-20 margin. Additionally, the Rangers hit 12 of 15 (80.0 percent) from the free-throw line. From the charity stripe, the Hardrockers only made 9 of 14 (64.3 percent).
 
Up Next for the Rangers: Regis moves to a 6-8 record overall and a 4-4 record in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) play. RU concludes the weekend and homestand against Black Hills State (8-5, 5-3 RMAC) at Regis Field House on Saturday at 3 p.m.