RAPID CITY - The Black Hills State women's basketball team opened the 2008-09 season with a new look and some similar results as the Yellow Jackets knocked off Dordt College, 71-57, in the first game of the Dakota Athletic Conference-Great Plains Athletic Conference Challenge at Goodell Gymnasium on Friday afternoon.

The Yellow Jackets are coming off one of the most successful seasons in school history as they went 28-6 and made it to the Elite Eight of the NAIA national tournament last season, but they are being forced to replace a couple of all-conference performers in Lacey Haughian and Snejzana Djocinovic. Replacing the two 6-foot-2-inch players forced BHSU coach Mark Nore to take a little different approach in the season opener, as he started four guards - Brittany Fuhrman, Janna Schriber, Piggy Pili and Katelynn Lamb - along with forward Alana Dykhouse. Dykhouse was the tallest player on the floor for Black Hills - and she's generously listed at 6-feet tall.

"We're trying to establish our identity as a team," Nore said. "I thought that we did some good things today and we have some things that we're going to have to look at on film and work on."

The smaller starting lineup wreaked havoc on Dordt to begin the game as the Yellow Jackets pressured the ball all over the floor in taking a 7-0 lead to open the game.

"I really liked the energy we brought to start the game and at the beginning of the second half," Nore said.

The Yellow Jackets used the 7-0 run to open the game and a 13-5 run to start the second half to take control of a game where they hit some offensive ruts later in both halves.

"I thought it was a typical first game," Nore said. "I thought we slowed down in the second half, had better ball movement and waited for things to come to us. I thought it was a good first game for us."

The Yellow Jackets (1-0 overall) got double figure scoring from a couple of central South Dakota standouts as Mobridge's Fuhrman (14) and Onida's Lamb (16) combined for 30 points. Pili, a freshman from Barrow, Alaska, dropped in 11 points in her college debut.

Julia DeKoekkoek led Dordt with 22 points and eight rebounds in 40 minutes of action.

Twelve players in all scored for Black Hills and eight registered assists. The Yellow Jackets held Dordt (0-1) to 31 percent shooting in the second half and 36 percent for the game, but the Lady Defenders out-rebounded the Jackets 42-32, something that Nore feels his team will need to improve.

"We're going to have to box out better as the season goes on," Nore said. "That's something that we definitely need to work on."

The Yellow Jackets will take on Dana College today at 10 a.m. at Goodell Gymnasium and Dordt will take on South Dakota Mines at noon.