Black Hills St. BHSU 22-1,16-1 RMAC

Regis (CO) Regis 10-14,7-11 RMAC

Black Hills St. BHSU

22-1,16-1 RMAC

Final

Feb. 11, 2023

Regis (CO) Regis

10-14,7-11 RMAC

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
Black Hills St. BHSU	43	51	94
Regis (CO) Regis	36	46	82

Summary
Box Score

Billy Saunders, Regis Athletics

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | Feb 11 | David Wilson, Assistant AD-Communications

Mayo Harmon scores career-high 16, Rangers' upset bid falls just shy against No. 3 Black Hills State

DENVER, Colo. — Squaring off against one of the nation's best, the Regis University men's basketball team put forward a strong effort Saturday as it hosted No. 3 ranked Black Hills State University.

Unfortunately for the Rangers, their upset bid fell a little shy as the RMAC-leading Yellow Jackets would pull away down the stretch for a 94-82 victory inside the Regis Fieldhouse.

"What's become a part of our journey this year is our ability to really get up and compete at the level we need to on a consistent basis. (Saturday) was a really effort, while last night (Friday's loss to South Dakota Mines) we showed about 10-12 minutes of the same intensity," said Regis head men's basketball coach, Brady Bergeson. "Black Hills State is very good, obviously. But the final result aside, I think our guys are pleased with the progress we made in terms of the way we showed up and competed."

HOW IT HAPPENED: Propelled by a breakout performance from freshman guard Chase Mayo Harmon, and a relentless attack of the offensive glass, the Rangers went toe-to-toe with the high-powered Yellow Jackets much of the evening.

Regis headed into the first half down just 43-36, thanks in large part to eight offensive rebounds and a 13-0 advantage in second chance points. The team would finish the evening with 12 total offensive boards and 21 second chance points.

"That was an important factor to keeping us close. When you play against these guys (Black Hills), you're trying to keep it close and see if you can't steal one in the last few minutes," Bergeson said. "Particularly in the first half, we went and cleaned up a number of our missed shots and I thought that really kept us within striking distance at halftime."

Regis would trim the deficit to four at the 10:02 mark of the second half at 63-59, and were within single digits again as late as the 7:08 mark, but were just unable to string enough stops together down the stretch against a prolific BHSU offense.

Black Hills, the RMAC leaders with a 50.8 percent field goal percentage on the year, finished the evening at 61.1% (33-for-54), led by the defending RMAC Player of the Year in Joel Scott with 19 points.

"Black Hills makes you pay if you give a shooter too big of a window. They just don't miss that shot. They are one of, if not the best, 3-point shooting teams in the country with weapons all over the place," Bergeson said. "They can really spread you with their shooters, combined with Joel Scott inside, who is a very difficult matchup. I thought our guys played very hard. Black Hills is just a very difficult team to guard."

Helping pace the Regis offense, which shot a solid 46.8% (29-for-62) from the floor was Mayo Harmon, who poured in a career-high 16 points in 31 minutes on 7-for-8 shooting. The dynamic shooting guard also grabbed five rebounds and added two assists with his insertion into the starting lineup.

"Chase has done a lot of good things this year in small chunks, but tonight was a much larger chunk. It was really good to see and I can tell Rangers fans that they'll be happy watching him for another three years because he's got a lot in the tank," Bergeson said of Mayo Harmon. "He has gotten better and better all the time and tonight was really fun watching him compete and go get some positive results the way he did."

Redshirt junior guard Eddy Egun would lead all Rangers with 17 points on 5-for-9 shooting, scoring 11 of his points in the second half, while freshman Vojin Mastilovic (11 points) and graduate student Jas Singh (12 points) rounded out the four Regis players in double-figures.

GAME NOTES:

Senior forward Aaron Bokol and sophomore forward Brayden Carter tied for the team lead with six rebounds
Sing and junior guard CJ Reed led all Rangers with three assists apiece
Black Hills State held an 11-2 advantage in fast break points
The Regis bench outscored the BHSU bench, 31-13

UP NEXT: Entering the final two weeks of the regular season, the Rangers currently find themselves just a half-game out of the eighth and final RMAC Tournament playoff spot, currently held by CSU Pueblo (11-12 overall, 7-10 RMAC).

Regis would look to build off the positives from Saturday's performance as it gets prepared to take on the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs (13-11 overall, 7-10 RMAC) at 7 p.m. Tuesday on the road inside the Gallogly Events Center.

"These next four games we're going to treat like playoff games. There's 4-5 teams duking it out for the last playoff spot or two and we're right in the mix," Bergeson said. "There's no reason why we can't put it together at the end and make our charge up the mountain here. We'll try to build off this game and come out aggressive on Tuesday."

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