Black Hills State men's basketball returns to NCAA D-II Elite Eight for second consecutive season

NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament First Four Practice — General NCAA basketball

By Mitchell Republic

March 15, 2023 at 5:25 PM

CANYON, Texas — Black Hills State men's basketball team advanced to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight on Tuesday night.

The Yellow Jackets (28-5, 18-4 RMAC) won a battle with No. 1 West Texas A&M, 68-67 on the road to win the South Central Regional. BHSU was the No. 6 seed in the regional and defeated Colorado School of Mines, Fort Lewis (Colo.) and West Texas A&M to advance to the final eight.

The Yellow Jackets came out victorious in a back-and-forth game that saw 14 ties and 14 lead changes.

BHSU will now play Minnesota-Duluth at noon on March 21 in Evansville, Indiana, and was re-seeded as the No. 3 team among the remaining eight squads. In 2022, BHSU made the national semifinals in their first national tournament appearance.

Earlier in the season, BHSU was ranked as highly as No. 2 in the nation but lost three of its final six games of the regular season and then lost in the semifinals of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament.

The rest of the Division II Elite Eight quarterfinal matchups include: No. 7 New Haven (Conn.) vs. No. 2 West Liberty (Pa.); No. 8 Missouri-St. Louis vs. No. 1 Nova Southeastern (Fla.); No. 5 Lincoln Memorial (Tenn.) vs. No. 4 Cal St. San Bernardino

By Mitchell Republic

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