Box Score

MARSHALL, Minn. - Ryan Krome poured in a career-high 23 points to lead No. 24 Southwest Minnesota State to a 80-61 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference victory over St. Cloud State on Friday night in Marshall.

The win was the 11th straight for the Mustangs who began the weekend also ranked No. 1 in the NCAA Central Region.

SMSU improves to 21-5, 13-3 NSIC, while SCSU drops to 16-7, 11-5 NSIC.  The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for the Huskies.

Krome finished the game connecting on a career-high eight field goals on 11 attempts and also dished out a team-high four assists in 23 minutes.  Kevin Andrews added 12 points and six rebounds, while Taylor Huseby closed out SMSU's double figure scoring with 12 points on 3 of 4 shooting and a perfect 6 of 6 from the free throw line.  Ross DeMasi pulled down 11 rebounds for the Mustangs, recording his 10th double figure rebounding game of the season.

The Mustangs scored the game's first three points on a three-pointer by Kevin Andrews and never looked back as SMSU never trailed in the game building an 18-point first half lead on two occasions and took a 45-27 lead into halftime.

SMSU held a slight 14-13 lead with 14:07 left in the opening half before going on a 9-0 run in the next two minutes to push the lead to double digits at 23-13 with 12 minutes left in the half.  SMSU maintained a 31-21 lead with 7:17 left, before putting together a 9-0 run to extend the lead to 38-21 with five minutes remaining in the half.

SMSU shot 50 percent the from the field in the opening half and shot 19 of 22 from the free throw line.  The Mustangs held a 24-13 rebound advantage in the first half and held the Huskies to just 28.6 percent shooting.

Southwest Minnesota State put the game away early in the second half opening the half scoring nine of the first 11 points of the to push the lead to its largest of the night at 54-29 with 17:21 left in the game.  

SCSU would trim the lead to 16 points at 70-54 with 6:33 remaining but that was as close as the Huskies would get, as SMSU won its third straight over SCSU and fourth in the last five games.

St. Cloud State was led by Brett Putz and Jesse Fisher who both scored 10 points.

SMSU will continue the weekend homestand tomorrow night taking on Concordia University with tip-off slated for 8 p.m.  Tomorrow night's game is "Andy Wiersma Night" as the SMSU men's basketball program will honor the late Mustang player prior to the game.