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Kevin Andrews drives for two points in the first half in the 76-65 win over Augustana on Thursday.

Second Half Surge Pushes Mustangs to Victory

Box Score

MARSHALL, MINN.: Southwest Minnesota State went on an 11-0 run midway through the second half, sparked by an acrobatic three-pointer by Travis Krenske as the shot clock buzzer sounded to give the Mustangs to a 76-65 win over Augustana College in a non-conference game on Thursday night.

The victory is the second in a row for SMSU and improves its record to 6-3 overall.  The loss snapped a seven-game winning streak for the Vikings and dropped their record to 8-2 on the season.

The two teams played a tight game throughout the game's first 31 minutes before SMSU's double-digit run put the Mustangs up for good.  With the score tied at 49-49 and the shot clock nearing zero, Krenske through up a prayer that was answered giving SMSU a 52-49 lead with 8:37 left in the game.  Following a missed jumper by Augustana's David Foster, SMSU's Matt Fletcher connected on his own three-pointer to put SMSU ahead 55-49 at 8:24.  Ross DeMasi then pushed the lead to 57-49 after scoring on offensive rebound and Fletcher extended the run to 11 straight points as he drilled another three-pointer to give SMSU a 60-49 lead with 6:18 left in the game.

The Vikings would go on a 5-0 run to pull within 60-54 with 4:44 remaining but the Mustangs countered once again and put the game away with a DeMasi field goal and three straight Ryan Krome free throws to push the lead back to 11 at 65-54 with just over two minutes left in the game.

SMSU, which has now outrebounded its opponents in nine games this season, finished with a 36-26 rebound margin including 14 offensive rebounds.  SMSU held a 21-10 rebound margin in the second.

Krenske led all scorers in the contest with a season-high 19 points on 5 of 7 shooting from the field including 3 of 4 three-pointers.  He was also a perfect 6 of 6 from the foul line and pulled down five rebounds.  DeMasi, who only played five minutes in the first half because of foul trouble and was held to zero points and one rebound, was outstanding in the final 16 minutes of the game and finished with his fourth career double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.  Fletcher ended the night with 12 points including a game-high four three-pointer while Kevin Andrew rounded out the double figure scoring with 10 points.

SMSU shot 45.3 percent (24 of 53) in the game and drilled a season-high 11 three-pointers on 21 attempts.  Augustana shot a solid 53.6 percent (15 of 28) from the field in the second half and finished the game shooting 27 of 56 for 48.2 percent.  The Vikings were just 4 of 18 from three-point range.

Eric Krogman led the Vikings with 15 points on 6 of 7 shooting.

SMSU will continue non-conference play this Sunday, Dec. 16 with a road game at future Northern Sun Conference foe Minnesota Duluth.  Tip-off is set for 3 p.m. at Romano Gym.


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