GOLDEN, Colo. - Black Hills State pulled off the upset against #12/15 Colorado School of Mines, bouncing the hosts 86-77 from the RMAC Tournament semifinals to advance to their first-ever final.

The Orediggers (25-5) fell victim to red-hot outside shooting by the Yellow Jackets (18-10), who will face upstart New Mexico Highlands in Saturday's final. Mines now awaits a likely at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament after entering the weekend third in the most recent South Central regional rankings; the selections will be unveiled Sunday night.

BHSU drained 15 three-pointers led by Dez Stoudamire's game-high 26 points and 6-of-10 shooting from the outside. Mines was held to .441 shooting for the game and just .351 in the second half as they couldn't make up the BHSU lead after halftime.

Brendan Sullivan and Ben Clare led the Orediggers' offense with 19 points and 18 points, respectively. The duo fueled a 10-2 run late in the first half that featured five points from Sullivan, two from Clare and a long-range shot from Ben Boone. Mines' late run pulled the home team within two points, trailing 41-39 at the half.

In the second half, Sullivan dropped 12 points on the Yellow Jackets in his effort to spark an Oredigger comeback. Clare also did his part with six points and seven rebounds in the second frame. However, Mines fell victim to a Black Hills State team that seemingly couldn't miss from long range. BHSU started the game by going 6-for-16 from long range through the first 20 minutes. The visitors capped their upset bid with nine three-pointers in the final period for 14 in the game and a long-range percentage of 44.1 percent.

NOTABLES
- It was Mines' first loss of the year at Lockridge Arena and snapped a 16-game home win streak dating back to last season.
- Fourth-seeded BHSU advances to their first-ever RMAC Tournament final and will face seventh-seeded New Mexico Highlands, an 87-77 winner over Regis in the late semifinal. The Cowboys will be making their first finals appearance since 2010, and have never won the tournament. 
- Mines outrebounded BHSU 41-35 led by Sonnefeld, who had a career-high 10. Sonnefeld narrowly missed a triple-double with eight points and eight assists. Ben Clare added nine boards to go with his 18 points.
- Sullivan was 7-for-12 for his 19 points to go with six boards. 
- Makaleb McInnis had 18 for the Yellow Jackets including four three-pointers.