MARSHALL, Minn. – Southwest Minnesota State earned a key Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference victory on Wednesday night defeating Wayne State 70-69 in Marshall.  The win moves SMSU into a seventh place tie with Wayne State and Northern State in the NSIC standings.  The top eight teams qualify for the NSIC tournament starting on March 3.

SMSU will conclude the regular season on Saturday, Feb. 27, at Northern State.  Wayne State will host Bemidji State.

SMSU, which never trailed in the game and led by 21 points early in the second half, nearly saw WSC rally for the victory. 

Jordan Miller paced SMSU with 16 points on 6 of 8 shooting and connected on three 3-pointers.  Trent Carlson added 14 points on 5 of 9 shooting off the bench.  Scott Roehl added a game-high 11 rebounds and chipped in with 10 points for his team-leading fifth double-double of the season.

The Mustangs held a 68-61 lead with one minute and 27 seconds left in the game, but a 3-pointer by WSC's Jason Jensen cut the margin to 68-64 with 1:11 on the clock.  SMSU's Scott Roehl hit two free throws with 38 seconds remaining to push the lead to 70-64, but then things got crazy.

With 28 seconds remaining, Roehl was called for a technical foul and the Wildcats' Amry Shelby made both free throws to make it 70-66.  On the ensuing WSC possession, Brad Starken scored a lay-up and was fouled and moments later completed the three-point play to trim the SMSU lead to 70-69 with 25.1 second left in the game.

Trent Carlson was fouled and missed two free throws with 22 seconds left giving WSC a chance to take the lead, but Jensen air-balled a jumper with 10 seconds left to give the ball back to SMSU.  WSC then fouled Miller with 7.8 seconds left but he missed both free throws giving the Wildcats another chance for the victory.  But following the miss, Jensen missed an off-balance 3-pointer at the buzzer and SMSU escaped with the victory.

Both teams shot extremely well as SMSU finished the game shooting 54.2 percent (26 of 48), including 10 of 17 from 3-point range.  WSC shot 57.7 percent in the second half and ended the evening shooting 51.1 percent (23 of 45) from the field.

The Mustangs held a 25-22 rebound advantage, but made just 8 of 16 from the free throw line, while WSC connected on 18 of 21 free throws.

SMSU started the game red-hot connecting on its first eight shots from the field in building a 23-6 lead with nine minutes and 36 seconds remaining in the first half.

WSC trimmed the lead to 25-13 with 5:55 the clock but SMSU answered closing the half on a 13-7 run to take a 38-20 halftime lead.

The Mustangs shot 64 percent in the opening half (16 of 25), including 5 of 9 from 3-point range.