Yellowjackets sting Eagles 76-67

Despite the sensational scoring outings from juniors Kevin McClelland, of Long Beach, Calif., with 18 points, and Moala Tautuaa, of junior San Francisco, with 13, the Chadron State men’s basketball team was unable to overcome some late foul trouble that enabled their Black Hills State counterpart to pull down the stretch for a 76-67 victory.

The loss put the Eagles at 0-1 on the season while the Yellow Jackets improved to 6-1. In the first-half the Eagles held control.
They led the game until 3 minutes before halftime when the Yellow Jackets took the game with a 3-pointer, and the Jackets took a run, outscoring the Eagles 36-33 at the half.

The second-half would begin with Black Hills shooting out of the gate quickly as they built a 7 point lead, but the Eagles came back on a 12 point run when Jordan Lisco, of Douglas, Wyo., and McClelland hit two 3-pointers.

The game remained close until the final five minutes when the Jacket’s Travis Haney sank a 3-pointer and two free throws.

With the Eagles’ foul trouble, the Jackets began to chip away at the lead and closed the win at 76-67.

Black Hills shot 44 percent efficiently in the second half. They made 24 of 55 of their shots from the field while Chadron netted 40 percent at 26 of 64.

Tautuaa also came away with 5 rebounds for the Eagles and Trey Mosby, from Portageville, Mo., and Sammy Hines, from Detroit, Mich., added 7 and 6 respectively.

The Jackets utilized a more balanced scoring effort as five players reached double-figures, led by Luke Enos, senior of Faith, S.D., with 16 points on 8-13 shooting.

Craig Von Allman, sophomore guard of Windsor, Colo., also posted double-digit scoring efforts off the bench with 12 points.

Chadron State are back in action this weekend and travel to play the University of Mary. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. in Bismarck, N.D.