MARSHALL, Minn. – The No. 22 ranked Southwest Minnesota State University men's basketball team opened Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play on Tuesday night earning a hard-fought 76-56 victory over previous unbeaten Wayne State inside the R/A Facility.
 
SMSU, which suffered an overtime loss on Sunday at Upper Iowa, rebounded tonight to improve to 5-1 overall, 1-0 NSIC. WSC drops to 5-1 overall, 0-1 NSIC.
 
A pair of Mustangs reached career-highs in scoring with Steven Kramer pouring in 18 points, while Mekhi Shaw added 15 points. Mason Lund also had a strong game making 6 of 9 field goals with three 3-pointers to finish with 16 points. Jakob Braaten reached double figures in scoring with 11 points with a pair of 3-pointers.
 
Shaw dished out a team-high four assists and added a team-high three steals.
 
SMSU finished the night shooting 58 percent (28 of 48) from the field, while making 7 of 18 from 3-point range. WSC was held to 36 percent (21 of 59) shooting and made just 4 of 27 from 3-point land. SMSU closed the game with a 38-28 rebound advantage with Kramer and Aeron Stevens each pulling down a game-high eight rebounds. The eight rebounds is a career-high for Kramer.
 
Cody McCullough paced the Wildcats with 15 points on 6 of 8 shooting and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
 
SMSU used a pair of big runs in each half to improve to 4-0 inside the R/A Facility. The game was tied at 13 in the opening half before SMSU used a 17-0 run to build a 30-13 advantage with six minutes remaining. WSC would not quit and battled back with its own big run to trim the deficit to 36-29 at halftime.
 
WSC would continue its fine play to open the second half using a 13-2 run in the opening five minutes to take a 42-38 advantage. Calvin Buss drilled a huge 3-pointer to stop the run before a free throw from Lund tied the game at 42 with 12:19 remaining.
 
WSC would regain the lead on a McCullough layup before SMSU answered with the game-deciding run. Stevens started the run with a free throw with Shaw following with a pair of free throws. Kramer added two straight field goals before Shaw closed the 9-0 run with a layup to give SMSU a 51-44 lead with just over eight minutes left in the game.
 
Following two WSC free throws, SMSU put the game away with a 10-0 run with Stevens scoring four points, while Braaten highlighting the run with a 3-pointer, to extend the margin to 61-46 with five minutes remaining.
 
SMSU outscored WSC 25-8 from the 15:15 mark until 4:28 remaining in the contest.
 
SMSU will continue home action on Saturday with a non-conference match-up versus Briar Cliff University with tip-off slated for 2 p.m.