RAPID CITY - When the Black Hills State women's basketball team starts play against Southern Oregon University at the NAIA national basketball tournament Wednesday, it will be without a single senior player on the roster. And four freshman and two sophomores will see a lot of minutes.

After losing the bulk of the roster off last year's team, which made it to the Elite Eight, there were a lot of questions going into this season.

"If you were to tell me a year ago that we would be

27-7 this year, would I have believed it? Yes, but there was so many unknowns," said head coach Mark Nore. "I thought our young kids played more like veterans, and our freshmen became upperclassmen. We still have a long ways to go and we're still improving every day, but I was really pleased with our season so far."

Two players which have filled major scoring roles are sophomore guard Katelyn Lamb and junior guard Brittany Fuhrman. Both made the DAC all-conference first team.

Lamb led the team in scoring averaging 14 points per game and was second on the team in assists with 71. Fuhrman was second on the team in scoring averaging

12 points per game and first in 3-pointers with 86.

But the Yellow Jackets are more than just a two-person team. They sometimes go as far as 11 players deep in a game and four freshmen see a lot of minutes. Freshman guard Piggy Pili starts and is averaging seven points per game while shooting 41 percent from outside the arc. Keely Krolikowski comes off the bench and is third on the team in scoring, averaging eight points per game. Tiffany Thomas leads the team in steals with 75 to round out the freshman contribution.

"Being such a young team we're still learning each other's roles," said Pili. "But we're a very closeknit group of girls and we've worked hard this season to be successful. We're just going to continue building for this year and beyond."

The Yellow Jackets are currently ranked 10th in the

NAIA. They finished second in the DAC tournament topping Dakota State and Jamestown before falling to Dickinson State in the final. Black Hills received an at-large bid into the NAIA tourney.

"Our expectations going into the national tournament are very high," said Nore. "No. 1 we want to enjoy the experience. But this is a team that really loves to win and hates to lose, so we want to go there and take it one game at a time. First, we have to beat Southern Oregon, and if we do that we'll move forward from there."

Black Hills State is seeded third and should it advance past the first round it will face a potential matchup with second-ranked Kansas Wesleyan.

"I think we expect to go a long ways," said Krolikowski. "If we could make it to the final that would be awesome. But we need to step up and play quality basketball and prove on the national level that we are a legit contender."