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MANKATO, Minn. – Southwest Minnesota State gave up a nine-point lead in the second half and hit just one field goal in the final 5:43 of the game to fall to No. 12 Minnesota State, Mankato 74-62 Saturday afternoon in both teams' conference openers in Mankato, Minn.

MSU moves to 6-2 (1-0 NSIC), while SMSU has its three-game winning streak snapped and falls to 3-2 (0-1 NSIC).

The Mustangs were led by a season-high 15 points and career-high nine rebounds from Heather Smith. Miley Hunziker added a career-high 11 points, while Megan Stadler and Tori Fink also reached double figures with 10 points each.

Jennie Noreen's game-high 21 points paced the Mavericks.

SMSU and MSU played to a 14-14 tie to open the contest, but by the 10-minute mark the Mavericks had put together a 6-0 run and led 20-14. The Mustangs trimmed that deficit to one when Hunziker banked a jumper in from the left side to give her squad a 20-19 score to work from.

The Mavericks, however, returned their lead to six points when Sarah Weins hit a layup to give MSU a 25-19 lead with 6:54 remaining in the opening half.

But the Mustangs would go to work with just under 2:30 left before the break. Trailing by nine, SMSU was sparked by a Smith jumper to cut the deficit to seven. A pair of Kenealy free throws and three makes from the charity stripe from Hunziker trimmed it to two points.

Stadler created what turned out to be the tying effort when she came up with steal with 1:01 left and Kenealy drilled the resulting jumper to knot the contest at 35-35 heading into the break.

Hunziker led the Mustangs, who shot 40 percent from the floor, with 11 points at the half.

SMSU opened the second half on an 10-2 run and held a 45-36 lead three minutes into the half. But the host Mavericks quickly answered with a 6-0 spurt of their own to close the gap to 45-42.

MSU cracked the lead with 14:04 remaining in the contest on a pair of back-to-back buckets from Tiffany Moe to give the Mavericks a 48-47 lead.

The Mustangs, however, answered with a free throw from Fink and layup from Morgan Hamner to retake the lead at 52-50.

After a pair of tie scores, the second at 59-59, the Mavericks charged ahead with a 9-1 run to effectively deflate the Mustangs. The run, which spanned more than four minutes, saw SMSU hit one free throw. SMSU finally connected on a field goal with 1:13 remaining—its first since the 5:43 mark.

The Mavericks ended the contest on a 15-3 run.

The loss is the fifth straight for SMSU in its series with MSU.

SMSU continues NSIC play next weekend, hosting Northern State and Mary.