THIS WEEK - Southwest Minnesota State University (14-11, 11-7 NSIC) continues its four-game homestand this weekend with its final pair of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference regular season home games. SMSU faces the Wayne State College (15-9, 9-9 NSIC) on Friday, Feb. 15, with tip-off slated for 8 p.m., before taking on Augustana College (17-5, 13-5 NSIC) for “Senior Night” on Saturday, Feb. 16, with game time set for 7 p.m. SMSU begins the weekend fifth in the NSIC South Division standings and seventh overall. WSC currently sits in sixth in the NSIC South and tied for 10th overall, while Augustana is tied for third in the NSIC South and tied for third overall. SMSU is currently two games behind Augustana and Upper Iowa for the third and fourth seed in the NSIC South. The top four seeds in each division will host a first round game in the NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament starting on Feb. 27.
WSC begins the weekend ranked second in the NSIC in scoring defense, fifth in free throw pct., fifth in field goal pct., 13th in scoring offense and 14th in rebounding. Augustana ranks fifth in the conference in field goal pct. defense, fifth in rebounding, seventh in scoring offensive, eighth in scoring defense, 12th in field goal pct. and 14th free throw pct. The Vikings' Cameron McCaffrey begins the weekend tied for first in the NSIC in scoring (20.4).
Following this weekend's games, SMSU will close out the regular season with road games versus Concordia and Minnesota State.
SOUTH VS. NORTH COMPLETE - Southwest Minnesota State will play four NSIC South Division teams to conclude the regular season the next two weekends. SMSU's sweep last weekend of the University of Mary and Minot State gave SMSU a final 6-2 record versus NSIC North teams. The NSIC South dominated play in the regular season, finishing with a 47-17 record versus North Division teams with all eight NSIC South teams recording a .500 record or better in inter-division play. Six of the NSIC South teams had records of 6-2 or better.
SENIOR DAY - SMSU will recognize its six senior players playing their final regular season home games on Saturday night prior to tip-off. The 2012-13 Mustang senior players include
Michael Appel,
Tramel Barnes,
Jordan Buddenhagen,
Jordan Miller,
Tyler Peschong and
Lavione West.
LAST TIME OUT - Southwest Minnesota State opened its longest homestand of the season sweeping the University of Mary (77-64) and Minot State (78-68) last weekend. In the win over UMary,
Jordan Miller scored a team-high 17 points, while
Nick Smith grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds and tied a career-high with five blocked shots for the second time this season. SMSU shot 62 percent in the second half and outscored the Marauders 45-28 in the final 20 minutes. In the victory over MISU,
Tramel Barnes poured in a career-high 17 points on 6 of 6 shooting to pace the Mustangs. Miller added 15 points, eight rebounds, five assists, two steals and two blocked shots.
>SMSU Release
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