WAYNE, Neb. – The Southwest Minnesota State men's basketball team opened Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play on Tuesday night suffering a 73-62 loss to undefeated Wayne State inside Rice Auditorium.
 
The loss was the first for the Mustangs (2-1, 0-1 NSIC) this season, while the Wildcats improve to 6-0 overall, 1-0 NSIC.
 
Jake Phipps paced SMSU with his 10^th career double-double scoring 18 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. Cliff Cofield was the only other Mustang in double-figure scoring with 14 points.
 
David Harmon scored a career-high 21 points for the Wildcats connecting on 9 of 13 field goals with three 3-pointers, while Cody McCullough added 17 points and 11 rebounds.
 
SMSU closed the night shooting 39 percent (23 of 59) from the field, including 5 of 19 from 3-point range. WSC made 25 of 52 shots from the field (48 percent) and connected on 6 of 17 from 3-point range.
 
SMSU scored the game's first six points behind 3-pointers from Dunwa Omot and Jakob Braaten. SMSU maintained a 14-6 advantage following an Aeron Stevens field goal with 14 minutes left in the half, but WSC rallied and took its first lead of the game at 15-14 with 10:44 left. The Wildcats would later hold a 20-19 advantage before using an 8-0 spurt to push the score to 28-19 with 5:25 left in the half and capping a 22-5 run over a nearly nine-minute stretch.
 
Kyle Luedtke would stop the WSC run with a 3-pointer and was followed by a layup by Phipps to cut the deficit to 28-24 with four minutes remaining in the half, but the Wildcats closed the half on a 6-2 run to build a 34-26 halftime lead.
 
WSC shot 48 percent in the opening half with four 3-pointers, while SMSU was limited to 36 percent shooting with a trio of 3-pointers.
 
SMSU struggled in the opening five minutes of the second half, making just 1 of its first 10 shots, while WSC was red-hot and used an 11-3 run to take a 45-29 lead. The lead would eventually would grow to 49-31 with 11 minutes remaining.
 
SMSU would attempt a rally and pulled to within 61-53 with 2:55 left following a Luedtke 3-pointer but it wasn't enough as WSC was able to hold off the comeback attempt.
 
Luedtke finished the night with eight points with a pair of 3-pointers with Stevens adding six points. Braaten and Omot, who was hampered with an injury in the contest, closed with five points each.
 
SMSU returns to non-conference play this weekend with two games in St. Paul, Minn., at the Concordia-St. Paul Thanksgiving Tournament. SMSU will face Upper Iowa on Saturday at 4 p.m. before taking on Truman State (Mo.) on Sunday starting at 2 p.m.