Box Score

MARSHALL, Minn. - Nick Dale tied a career-high 18 points to lead Southwest Minnesota State to a 77-64 non-conference victory over NCAA Division I North Dakota Tuesday night in Marshall.

The victory for SMSU was its eighth in a row and improves its record to 18-5 overall, while UND drops to 11-9 overall.  It was the second win for SMSU this season over UND.  It's the only two non-NCAA Division I losses for UND this season, its first as an NCAA Division I transitional member.

SMSU, which is tied for the lead in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference with Winona State at 10-3, returns to conference action on Friday night at MSU Moorhead.

Dale finished the night connecting on 5 of 9 shots from the field and made a career-high eight free throws on nine attempts.  Dale was one of three Mustangs to score in double figures as Andy Beilke, making just his third career start, added 15 points, while Kevin Andrews chipped in with 11 points.  Andrews also recorded three assists and two steals in 22 minutes.

SMSU finished the game making a season-high 31 free throws on 39 attempts and held a 36-29 rebound advantage, including pulling down 16 offensive rebounds leading to 20 second chance points.

UND opened the game opening a 13-8 lead with just under 13 minutes left in the first half before SMSU slowly chipped away at the lead and took its first lead of the game at 20-19 with 7:34 left on two free throws by Dale.

UND took a 31-29 lead with 1:17 remaining in the opening half before Andrews drilled a jumper with 58 seconds left to send the game into a 31-31 tie for halftime.

The two teams exchanged the lead in the first three minutes of the second half before SMSU used an 11-0 run to take the lead for good and never looked back.  Dale gave SMSU a 40-39 lead with 15:56 left with two free throws and SMSU continued to pour it on as Dale scored again to make it 42-39 and Jon DeRock followed with two free throws to push the lead to 44-39.  Scott Roehl then capped the run with four straight points to give SMSU a 48-39 lead with 14:23 left in the game.

The Fighting Sioux pulled to within 48-41 with 13:44 left, stopping the SMSU run, but the Mustangs answered back with an 8-0 run over the next two minutes to push the lead to 56-41 with 11 minutes on the clock and the Mustangs never looked back as the lead never dipped below double digits.

SMSU finished the night shooting 20 of 51 from the field (39.2), including 6 of 17 from three-point range (35.3).  UND ended the evening making 22 of 47 field goals (46.8), including 4 of 13 (30.8) from three-point range.

Daniel Harkins led the Fighting Sioux with 20 points.