MARSHALL, Minn. – The Southwest Minnesota State University men's basketball team moved into a tie for first place in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference standings with a thrilling 76-73 victory over league leader, Minot State, in a battle of nationally-ranked teams inside the R/A Facility on Saturday night
SMSU, ranked No. 23 in the D2CSC Top 25, improves to 13-3 overall, 8-2 NSIC. Minot State, which entered the weekend undefeated, lost for the second straight night and drops to 17-2 overall, 8-2 NSIC. The Beavers are ranked No. 4 in the NABC Top 25 and No. 7 in the D2CSC poll.
SMSU's
Jakob Braaten scored a game-high 22 points on 8 of 16 shooting, while grabbing seven rebounds.
Mekhi Shaw, making his first career start, tied a career-high with 17 points on 7 of 11 shooting with three 3-pointers.
Aeron Stevens poured in 15 points with five 3-pointers while adding five rebounds.
MSU's Caleb Van De Griend scored 20 points on 10 of 14 shooting and pulled down 19 rebounds. Teammate Sam West added 16 points with seven rebounds with five assists.
SMSU finished the game shooting 51 percent (28 of 55) and tied a season-high with 13 3-pointers on 27 attempts. MSU shot 45 percent (30 of 67), including 8 of 29 from 3-point range. The Beavers held a 40-30 rebound advantage which led to a 16-3 scoring edge in second chance points.
For the second straight game SMSU opened with a big lead, jumping out to a 12-2 advantage in the opening four minutes before eventually building a 21-5 lead with 13:24 left following a 3-pointer from
Landon Pokorski, who was playing in his first collegiate game. SMSU made 8 of its first 12 shots with five 3-pointers, while MSU was limited to 2 for 11 shooting.
Trailing 23-7, MSU answered in a big way scoring 14 straight points over a four-minute stretch to cut the deficit to 23-21 at the 7:47 mark.
Pokorski and Stevens hit back-to-back 3-pointers to push the SMSU lead to 31-23 before MSU rallied to tie the game at 35 with 1:35 left in the half. Braaten converted a three-point play while Stevens drilled his fifth 3-pointer of the half in the final two minutes to help SMSU take a 41-40 lead into the break.
SMSU shot 59 percent in the opening half with eight 3-pointers, while MSU made six 3-pointers and shot 53 percent overall.
The Mustangs opened with a strong second half with Shaw drilling a 3-pointer followed by a layup by Braaten and another field goal by Shaw to make the score 48-40 with 16:43 remaining.
SMSU would hold a 54-51 lead with just over 12 minutes remaining before Shaw and
Mason Lund drilled 3-pointers to spark a 12-3 run to push the margin to 66-54 with eight minutes left in the game.
MSU countered with an 8-2 run to pull within 68-62 before Shaw hit a big field goal at the 3:38 mark to give SMSU a 70-62 lead. The Beavers put together another run to cut the deficit to 72-70 with 1:12 left and had a chance to tie with 31 seconds left, but Van De Griend missed a layup with Stevens grabbing the defensive rebound.
Braaten was fouled with 19 seconds remaining and calmly sank two free throws to give SMSU a four-point lead. MSU's Jalen Cook answered with a layup to cut the lead back to two, but
Steven Kramer hit a pair of clutch free throws with 10 second left to give SMSU a 76-72 lead.
West would get fouled on a 3-pointer with six seconds left and would make just one of three free throws to pull the Beavers to within 76-73. Stevens would miss the front end of a one-and-one moments later giving MSU one last chance, but West's long-range 3-pointer missed to give SMSU its third straight win over MSU.
Pokorski finished the game making a pair of 3-pointers while dishing out three assists. Lund added seven points with
Calvin Buss chipping in with five points, including one 3-pointer. The Mustangs played the game without its leader in 3-point field goals made,
Dunwa Omot, who suffered an injury in Friday's win over MSU Moorhead.
SMSU continues its homestand next Friday and Saturday versus Northern State and UMary. SMSU and NSU will meet on Friday with game time set for 5:30 p.m.
