Black Hills State advances to the National Quarterfinals in an 8 p.m. matchup against No.1 seeded Morningside (Iowa) tomorrow night.

Black Hills State jumped out to an early 4-0 lead on Katelynn Lamb's bucket with 18:24 left in the first half, but LaCole Wilkinson got Wesleyan's first points with 18:02 left. Wesleyan got within one with 16:06 left on Khristy Santee's three point play that made in 6-5 and appeared to have turned the momentum in favor of the Coyotes.

Kristi Ryan then hit a three for Black Hills State to make it 9-5, but the Coyotes got a well timed answer three with 14:42 left from Kaylaen Dittmer, who made her 121st consecutive start despite a stress fracture in her right leg.

The Yellow Jackets then got a three from Brittany Fuhrman and a conventional three-point play from Lamb gave them the biggest lead of the night at 15-8 with 11:08 to go in the first half. Jennie Vopat then came up huge scoring four points in a row to keep Wesleyan within three at 15-12.

Ryan then hit another three to put BHSU back up six with 9:20 to go. Wilkinson then hit a three followed by a huge three-point play by Santee to tie things up at 18-all with 8:39 left. Black Hills got four in a row, all from Keely Krolikowski to put the Yellow Jackets up four with 8:03 left. A put back by Jennie Vopat then fueled a 7-0 run by the Coyotes that gave Wesleyan its first lead and put the Coyotes up three with 5:48 left on Vopat's score that made it 25-22.

Fuhrman followed with a three to tie things up at 25 on Black Hills' next possession, but the Coyotes held onto the lead, regaining a four-point lead with 3:52 left in the half on Emily Luckeroth's score.

Dannielle Bauer converted a three-point play to give the Yellow Jackets a 30-29 lead on a three point play with 2:54 left. The lead would swing back and forth for the remainder of the half with Black Hills taking a 32-31 lead into the half.

Vopat opened the second half with a bucket that gave the Coyotes a one point lead, but Janna Schriber tied the score up and ignited a 5-0 run to put Black Hills State up 37-33 with 17:56 left. Vopat then scored and Santee got a free throw to cut the lead to one, but six straight points from BHSU gave the Jackets a 43-36 lead with 13:45 left in the game.

Wesleyan wasn't about to give in. Dittmer scored a layup that ignited an 11-2 run that gave Wesleyan a 47-45 lead with 9:25 to go on Shelby Babcock's three. Babcock then followed with a pair of free throws to put the Coyotes up four, but a Fuhrman three cut the lead back to one with 7:28 to go.

Luckeroth was then fouled on a three attempt and hit two of the three free throws to put the Coyotes back up three with 6:42 left, and Jessica Potthoff got a free throw with 5:44 left to put Wesleyan up four at 52-48.

Piggy Pili then hit a three with 4:38 left to get the Yellow Jackets within one, and after three straight KWU turnovers Lamb hit a bucket with 2:27 left to give Black Hills State a 53-52 lead. Santee came back down and hit two free throws to give the Coyotes back.

Krolikowski then hit a bucket to put the Yellow Jackets back up one, and two more Coyote turnovers allowed Black Hills State to go back up three when Lamb hit a bucket with 34.8 seconds left. Potthoff had a great look at a three with 20 seconds left that was three-quarters of the way down and popped back out that would have tied the score.

Wilkinson hit a layup with 11 seconds left and Tiffany Thomas missed the front end of a bonus free throw and the Coyotes had a chance to get a final shot, but BHSU stepped up its defense and forced a final turnover right before the buzzer.

Vopat led the Coyotes with 17 points, and nine rebounds as Wesleyan held a 39-38 rebounding advantage over Black Hills State. Wilkinson added 12 and Santee had 10 points and eight rebounds in her final game as a Coyote. Wesleyan was just 20-of-60 from the field for 33.3 percent in the game, which included a 27.9 percent effort in the second half.

Lamb led Black Hills State with 17 points, while Krolikowski added 10 points off the bench for the Yellow Jackets as they shot 20-of-55 from the field for 36.4 percent. Alana Dykhouse had eight rebounds to lead Black Hills State.

Wesleyan finishes its 2008-09 season with a school record 27-6 overall record, which included a 16-2 record in KCAC play as the Coyotes won their first KCAC Championship since 1988. Wesleyan won 15 games in a row before the season ending loss.