DENVER – The Regis University women's basketball team could not extend its win streak to four and was plagued by shooting from both the paint and arc in its 71-59 loss to Black Hills State at Regis Field House on Saturday.
 
How It Happened: The Rangers trailed the Yellow Jackets, 59-53, with 3:51 to go in the fourth quarter when junior forward Katie Messler's jumper put Black Hills State up, 61-53, which was eventually proven to be the game-winning score.
 
Down but not out, Regis moments later put together a 6-0 run that began on junior forward Grace O'Neill's jumper with 3:10 left in the game and concluded on junior guard Emma Sterkel's 3-pointer at the 2:03 mark of the fourth. Sterkel's trey brought RU within five, 64-59.
 
BHSU then tacked on a 7-0 run to end the game that was kicked off by redshirt junior forward Morgan Ham's trey with 1:07 left in regulation, making the score, 67-59, and was capped by junior guard Racquel Wientjes' pair of free throws that brought the contest to its final score just 25 seconds before the final buzzer.
 
The Rangers early on had a brief 4-2 lead on account of Sterkel's layup just 1:16 into the game. However, that was followed by a 5-0 run started by a Wientjes go-ahead trey, 5-4, with 8:29 left in the first and ended on Ham's two free throws. Ham's successful trip to the free-throw line occurred with 7:48 remaining in the first and gave the Yellow Jackets a 7-4 lead.
 
Wientjes' 3-pointer with 57 seconds to go in the first provided Black Hills State a 15-9 advantage to end the opening 10 minutes.
 
BHSU maintained a small lead throughout the second quarter that Regis shrank to as little as two when a jumper by freshman guard Kali Murrell moved RU to a 28-26 deficit with 2:17 remaining before the intermission.
 
On the flip side, the Yellow Jackets led by as many as seven on three occasions during the second quarter. The last instance of this margin came when Ham's jumper with 36 seconds to go before halftime grew the Rangers' deficit to 35-28, which ended up being the score at the half.
 
Midway through the third quarter, Regis found itself at the wrong end of a 7-0 run that commenced on Wientjes' jumper at the 3:37 mark, 45-36, and stopped on a 3-pointer from Wientjes with 1:46 remaining in the third. The trey from Wientjes gave Black Hills State a 14-point, 50-36 lead.
 
This was succeeded by a 5-0 run bookended by junior forward Whitney Jacob's jumper and free throw with 1:31 and less than a second to go in the third, respectively. Jacob's shot from the charity stripe cut the RU deficit to 50-41.
 
Game Notes: Jacob had a team-high 16 points to go along with a team-high eight rebounds and shares of the game-highs of three assists and one block. O'Neill was all over the stat sheet with her 12 points, five rebounds, one assist, share of the game-high one block, and one steal. Sterkel contributed 11 points and one rebound. Murrell added 10 points, a share of the game-high three assists, and one steal. Senior forward Jaz'Myne Snipes scored four points and recorded six rebounds, one assist, and shares of the game-highs of one block and three steals.
 
The Rangers were outshot from both the paint and the arc. Regis finished the game with a 20-for-63 (31.7 percent) performance from the paint and 6-for-29 (20.7 percent) showing from 3-point range. From those respective areas, Black Hills State made 25 of 47 (53.2 percent) and 9 of 19 (47.4 percent).
 
Up Next for the Rangers: Regis falls to a 6-9 record overall and a 4-5 record in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) play. RU begins a four-game road trip at No. 19 Westminster (Utah) (13-2, 8-1 RMAC) at Behnken Field House on Friday at 5:30 p.m.