College men: Black Hills drills Mines

By Roger Toland, Journal staff | Friday, February 16, 2007

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RAPID CITY - Black Hills State went on a 17-0 run early in the first half and kept the advantage most of the game in trimming South Dakota Mines 85-67 in a season-ending men's Dakota Athletic Conference at Goodell Gymnasium Thursday night.

"We had an awful day of practice yesterday and I was upset the way we prepared," said BHSU coach Paul Sather.

In the other locker room, Mines' coach Jason Henry said, "I take the blame. I didn't have the guys ready to play. Too many people were giving us sugar cookies and patting us on the back. We played like we were supposed to win by 20 points."

The Hardrockers had an early 4-3 lead, but then missed 10 straight shots while the Jackets were going on a 17-0 run to lead 20-4 on Forrest Dorr's three free throws with 10:50 to go in the half.

"We did absolutely nothing," said Henry. "They did exactly what we thought they would do and we did nothing to stop them."

Mines did cut the lead to 25-16 six minutes before halftime, but the Jackets then went on another scoring run, 9-2 over the next three minutes.

"We were pretty sharp," said Sather. "Our ball reversal and decision making was as good as I've seen it all year. "I'm proud of the fact that even though we have had a tough season and a lot of hard games, the guys stuck through it against a very good team."

Both teams begin playoff action Tuesday night as Black Hills State travels to Jamestown College and Mines is at home against Dickinson State.

The Jackets, who finished the DAC with a 5-9 mark and 10-18 overall, hit 52 per cent from the field and 17 of 19 from the charity stripe.

"This team has been an enigma most of the season," said Sather. "All the blame doesn't go on them because I've made plenty of mistakes. We've learned by mistakes and stuck together."

The Rockers, 9-5 in the conference and 14-14 overall, managed to hit only 39 per cent from the field. They also put up 21 three-point attempts (the most in any game this season) and hit only 19 of 29 free tosses.

"We haven't had a great shut-down defense all year, but we tried to keep guys away from what they wanted to do," said Sather.

A.J. Fodness came off the bench to pace the Jackets with 20 points, while Andre Goldberg and Dorr each added 16 and Corey Doolan 11.

"We wanted the clock to run faster," said Sather. "I felt our best defense was our offense. Early, we did some nice things, then we started not looking to score and running the clock out."

Casey Schmitz, who was bottled up in the first half, led the Miners with 17 points. Robbie Fedor scored 12 and Matt Lyndoe 11.

"We didn't have one bad half all year at home, but that was different tonight," said Henry.

"They were ready to go and we weren't."