ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – The Southwest Minnesota State University men's basketball team opened the 2023-24 season on Friday afternoon with a solid 72-68 victory over Southeastern Oklahoma State in day one of the Missouri Western State Classic inside the MWSU Fieldhouse.
 
Jake Phipps led the Mustangs with a team-high 17 points on 8 of 11 shooting, while grabbing a game-high nine rebounds. Dunwa Omot, Mason Lund and Kyle Luedtke each scored 14 points to help the Mustangs earn its second straight season opening victory. Mustang true freshman Aeron Stevens came off the bench and scored nine points and pulled down four rebounds.
 
Aaron Jacob led the Savage Storm with 18 points on 8 of 14 shooting. SE, which drops to 1-2 overall, was picked to win the Great American Conference.
 
SMSU trailed 60-56 with five minutes and 31 seconds remaining in the game, but a Luedtke 3-pointer, followed by a Lund field goal and a Phipps 3-pointer gave the Mustangs a 64-60 advantage with just over four minutes on the clock.
 
Lund would later drill a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 70-64 at the 2:40 mark, but the Savage Storm wouldn't go away and pulled to within 70-68 with 1:17 remaining following a Jacob layup. SE would later have a chance to tie the game with under 15 seconds remaining, but a potential game-tying jumper was missed and Omot secured the rebound with 11 second left. Omot would miss a free throw, but Cliff Cofield came through with a big rebound and was fouled with 10 seconds left. The senior would make both free throws—his only points of the game—to secure the victory. Cofield finished with a game-high four steals and dished out four assists, while grabbing four rebounds.
 
SMSU closed the game shooting 45 percent (27 of 60) from the field and made 9 of 28 from 3-point range. The Mustangs held a 37-34 rebound advantage.
 
SE finished the game shooting 44 percent (27 of 62), while making 10 of 25 3-pointers.
 
SMSU started the game shooting very well from the field in building a 19-10 advantage at the 14-minute mark following a 3-pointer by Luedtke. The lead would later push to its largest of the game at 28-18 following a Lund layup with 9:13 left in the opening half.
 
SMSU cooled off later in the half with SE rallying to cut the deficit to 35-30 at halftime.
 
SE would use a quick start to the second half putting together an 8-2 run in the first four minutes to take its first lead of the game since the opening minutes of the first half. SE would extend the lead to 50-45 with 11 minutes remaining, but Luektke would come through with a big 3-pointer to stop the run and help start the SMSU comeback.
 
SMSU concludes the weekend on Saturday with a match-up versus No. 1 ranked Northwest Missouri State with tip-off slated for 3:15 p.m. NWMSU opened its season on Friday with a 65-47 victory over Northern State.