BILLINGS, Mont. – The Montana State University Billings Men's Basketball team takes a trip to the Black Hills to play two non-conference games against South Dakota School of Mines and Black Hills State University.

The Jackets are 1-1 on the young season, losing to the University of Montana Western 78-67 and beating Carroll College 65-60 this past weekend in The Yellowstone Bank and Billings Hotel Classic hosted by MSUB.

In the victory against Carroll, the Jacket's came out hot starting the game on a 12-2 run, but then subsequently cooled down and Carroll would go on a run of their own to bring it to 31-28 going into half. The Jackets would hold on and take the five point win into practice this week then onto the Black Hills.

"We have a big weekend ahead of us for sure," Head Coach Jamie Stevens said. "It will be the home opener for both teams and I expect both opponents to play with big time energy. Our success will be determined by our ability to match that energy."

Two games into the season the Jackets are led by Jonathan Mesghna who is averaging 14.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists and has all three blocks for the Jacket so far, followed by Kalob Hatcher who averages 11.0 points, 4.0 assists and 2.0 steals per game. Connor Donaldson is averaging 9.0 points and 4.0 rebounds while Chase Miller is leading the team in three point percentage shooting .500 in two games.

As a team the Yellowjackets are averaging 66.0 points per game while allowing opponents to score 69.0 points. MSUB is shooting .336 on the year and opponents are shooting .435. The Jackets average 31.5 rebounds per game and are playing unselfish basketball averaging 13.5 assists per game.

"This weekend gives another a chance to work on some areas that need improvement, specifically interior defense, rebounding and the ability to step up and make shots," Stevens said. "I am pleased with our unselfishness on offense and we have done a nice job taking care of the ball. We need to play free and knock some shots down, while also doing a better job of at least looking inside for some post touches. On defense, it's pretty simple: We need to play harder and compete better. Right now, we just aren't playing hard enough at that end of the floor to have the success we want. Unfortunately, when we do get stops, many times we haven't been able to finish the possession with a rebound which is also an effort thing. If we play harder, many of our issues on that end of the court will be minimized."

The first game is against South Dakota School of Mines on Thursday, Nov. 14th at 7:00 P.M.. The Hardrockers are 0-2 on the season having lost to The University of Mary and Minot State University. They average 64.0 points per game while allowing opponents to score 72.0 points. Lance Kilburn paces the Hardrockers with 13.0 points a game to go with 3.0 rebounds. He and Caleb Shockman who averages 12.5 points and 5.0 rebounds, will led the Hardrocker attack.

This will be the eighth meeting between MSUB and SDSM. The Hardrockers have won 5 of the seven but MSUB won the meeting last year, 87-73. Before last year the two teams had not played since 1950. Stats and live video for the game can be found at http://www.sdsmt.edu/Athletics/.

The second game of the trip is against Black Hills State University on Saturday Nov. 16th at 7:30 P.M.. This is their first game of the year and will be the home opener. BHS lost its top two scorers from last year's squad, so will look to Joey Mitchell and Brady Bisgaard who both averaged 10.7 points per game.

Black Hills State and MSUB first met in 1938 with BHS winning 43-37. This will be the 16th meeting between the two programs with MSUB holding a slight advantage 9-6 and having won the past seven in a row. Stats and live video can be found at http://www.bhsuathletics.com/landing/index.