BOX SCORE

MARSHALL, Minn. – Southwest Minnesota State used solid defense in the final four minutes to rally for a thrilling 66-64 victory over Augustana College on Friday night in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference opener for both teams.

Jordan Miller put SMSU ahead with 1:56 remaining in the game connecting on two free throws to give the Mustangs a 62-61 lead that it would never give up. Augustana held a 61-56 lead with 4:07 left in the game, but failed to score again until a last-second 3-pointer made the final margin 66-64.

SMSU held a 62-61 with under a minute left in the game, but Augustana's Nathan Truex missed a go-ahead field goal with 46 seconds left. On SMSU's next possession, Vinard Birch scored with seven seconds left, just before the shot clock expired, to give the Mustangs a 64-61 lead.

SMSU fouled Augie's Cody Schilling with 4.1 seconds left, but he missed the front end of a one-and-one and the Mustangs' Miller grabbed the rebound and made two free throws to seal the victory.

Miller led SMSU with a team-high 18 points on 5 of 11 shooting with six rebounds, while Scott Roehl added 15 points and a game-high nine rebounds.

Schilling was red-hot all night for the Vikings, scoring a career-high 30 points on 12 of 19 shooting with two 3-pointers in 38 minutes. Augie's leading scorer, Cameron McCaffrey, who entered the game averaging 20.8 points per game, was held to just seven points in 23 minutes.

The two teams played to a tight first half as the lead changed six times and was tied four times. SMSU built its largest lead of the half at 12-7 at the 13 minute mark, but Augie answered with a 6-0 run to take its first lead since the game's first 30 seconds at 13-12 with 11:22 left in the half.

The Vikings took its largest lead at 26-21 with 6:27 remaining until SMSU answered with its own run to tie the game at 29 with 3:48 on the clock on a Lavione West field goal. Augie put together a 5-0 run to once again build a five-point lead, before settling for a 36-34 halftime lead.

Schilling led the Vikings in the opening half with 17 points and three rebounds. Miller led SMSU with nine points on 4 of 7 shooting.

SMSU started the second half with a big run and built a 42-36 lead with 17:36 left in the game following a Birch layup.

The Vikings answered back and regained the lead with 14:06 remaining on a Schilling jumper. Following a basket by SMSU's Nick Smith, the Vikings once again grabbed the lead at the 13:13 mark and kept the lead until Roehl tied the game at 56-56 with 4:49 remaining. The Vikings then scored score five straight points to make the score 61-56 with 4:07 left before the Mustangs made their final game-winning push.

Southwest Minnesota State ended the game shooting 41.2 percent from the field (25 of 60) including 4 of 9 from 3-point range. SMSU committed just nine turnovers in the game and held a 40-28 rebound margin.

SMSU will continue its home conference weekend taking on Wayne State tomorrow night starting at 8:05 p.m.