Box Score

MARSHALL, Minn. – Southwest Minnesota State pushed its winning streak to a season-high five straight with a convincing 86-57 victory over the University of Sioux Falls on Saturday night in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference men's basketball.
 
SMSU improves to 9-3 overall, 5-1 NSIC, and has now won eight of its last nine games. The only loss for SMSU during the last month was an overtime set back at USF in late November.
 
SMSU shot 52 percent (32 of 62) in the game, including connecting on 9 of 22 from 3-point range.
 
Turner Moen led a balanced SMSU scoring attack with a season-high 15 points on 5 of 9 shooting with three 3-pointers. Taylor Schafer added 14 points, while Ryan Bruggeman, KJ Davis and Carter Kirk all finished with 11 points. Kirk also grabbed a game-high nine rebounds as SMSU held a 45-34 rebound advantage in the contest.
 
The Mustangs played outstanding defense all night long, limiting the Cougars to 33 percent (21 of 64) shooting, including just 25 percent in the second half. USF's Drew Guebert, the NSIC's leading scorer at 25 points per game in five league contests, was limited to nine points on 4 of 14 shooting.
 
Trevon Evans led the Cougars, 8-3 overall, 4-2 NSIC, with 14 points, but was just 5 of 20 shooting and 1 of 9 from 3-point range.
 
The teams played a tight opening 10 minutes as neither team held a lead of more than two points. USF finally broke through using a four-point play by Drew Maschoff to take a 25-21 lead with 9:41 left in the half.
 
SMSU rallied back over the next three-plus minutes scoring 11 straight points to build a 32-25 advantage with six minutes left following a layup by Kenny Byers.
 
USF would later cut the lead to 32-29 but a layup by Kolin Bartlett and a 3-pointer by Bruggeman gave SMSU a 37-29 lead with 3:29 on the clock.
 
The Cougars cut the lead to 39-34 with 1:18 left, but the Mustangs used a pair of field goals by Bartlett and a buzzer-beating jumper from Bruggeman to take a 45-34 lead into the halftime break.
 
SMSU shot 55 percent in the opening half with five 3-pointers and held a 23-14 rebound edge.
 
USF hit the first field goal of the second half to cut the deficit to nine points, but following a Davis layup the lead was back to double digits and never dipped below a 10-point lead the remainder of the game.
 
Schafer connected on a 3-pointer with 13:45 remaining to make the score 59-43, before SMSU eventually build an 18-point cushion with 8:49 left on a Moen 3-pointer.
 
SMSU held a 69-55 lead with 6:56 remaining before closing the game on a 17-2 run to seal the victory.
 
Southwest Minnesota State will now be off for 14 days before returning to the court on Saturday, Dec. 30, host Augustana University with tip-off set for 6 p.m.