SPEARFISH, S.D. – Upset-minded MSU Denver gave third-ranked (in both polls) Black Hills State everything it wanted for 27 minutes Saturday night.
 
But the Roadrunners ran into a wall, and more specifically into returning RMAC Player of the Year Joel Scott, who led the Yellow Jackets on a game-ending 45-15 run to hand MSU Denver an 89-57 defeat.
 
"We ran out of gas a little bit, and Joel Scott did what a Player of the Year-type player does and took over, and we just couldn't guard him," MSU Denver coach Dan Ficke said. "Then they were red-hot from 3 and we couldn't throw it in the ocean from 3.
 
"But I'm proud of the effort of our guys for those first 27 minutes. They did a great job of fighting to have a lead at halftime and put us in a position to win, but we just couldn't finish it.
 
MSU Denver (9-13 overall, 6-10 RMAC) scrapped to a 32-28 halftime lead, and even though Scott scored five straight points to open the second half and put the Yellow Jackets in front while igniting a 9-1 run, the Roadrunners weren't done yet.
 
Quave Propst-Allison's 3-pointer with 13:32 left got MSU Denver within 44-42.
 
But it was all downhill from there, starting with a 22-2 run over the next five minutes. Scott scored 20 points in the first 12 minutes of the second half and finished with 25.
 
Black Hills State (20-1, 14-1) outscored the Roadrunners 61-25 in the second half. The Yellow Jackets hit 15 of 23 from 3-point range (65.2 percent) for the game, including 7 of 9 (77.8 percent) in the second half. MSU Denver made one 3 in each half while finishing 2 of 17 from distance (11.8 percent).
 
Propst-Allison led MSU Denver with 15 points and six rebounds, and fellow true freshman guard Brayden Maldonado added 11 points and five rebounds.
 
"Quave has played well in back-to-back games and is really building confidence and Brayden was solid," Ficke said. "Scott is such a force on both sides that we couldn't get anything going inside, but our guards did a good job of getting downhill into the paint to try to get them in foul trouble. We just couldn't capitalize in the second half."
 
MSU Denver stays in 11^th place in the RMAC, but is still just two games behind sixth-place Westminster and 1 ½ games behind the teams tied for seventh as it pursues a bid for a top-eight finish and a trip to the league tournament.
 
The Roadrunners return home next weekend to face Westminster and have six league games remaining.
 
"We talked to the guys afterwards about how we did our job splitting on the road this weekend (MSU Denver won Friday at South Dakota Mines), and even though we wanted this one bad, we can't let it derail us," Ficke said. "We've got four at home and two on the road with teams we know we can compete with. We're still in a good position, but we've got to handle our home court and split, if not sweep, the last two on the road."