ST. PAUL, Minn. – MSU Moorhead made 14 3-pointers on 28 attempts, while limiting Southwest Minnesota State to 4 of 15 from 3-point range, to earn a 78-68 victory in men's college basketball on Saturday afternoon at the Gangelhoff Center.
The non-conference game is part of the Concordia-St. Paul Thanksgiving Classic. SMSU, now 1-3 overall, closes the weekend on Sunday with a 2 p.m. match-up versus the University of Jamestown.
MSUM, which earned its fourth straight victory, improves to 4-2 overall. The Dragons finished the game shooting 50 percent (27 of 54) from the field, making 14 3-pointers and 13 two-point field goals.
SMSU, which made one more field goal than MSUM in the contest, closed the afternoon shooting 47 percent (28 of 60) from the field.
MSUM held a 34-29 rebound advantage leading to a 12-11 scoring advantage in points off turnovers.
Aeron Stevens led the Mustangs with 21 points on 8 of 14 shooting with teammate
Jakob Braaten adding 20 points, while grabbing a team-high seven rebounds and dishing out a game-high six assists.
Mekhi Shaw (13) and
Micah Schlaak (11) also reached double figure scoring for the Mustangs.
Dominic Gooden led the Dragons with 27 points with six 3-pointers on 10 attempts.
SMSU struggled shooting in the opening 15 minutes of the game with MSUM taking advantage in building a 24-14 lead with six minutes and 20 seconds left in the first half.
The Dragons would later take a 29-19 advantage with 2:50 left in the half, but the Mustangs rallied with nine straight points, capped by a long Braaten jumper just before the halftime buzzer to cut the deficit to 29-28 at halftime.
MSUM shot 50 percent in the first half with five 3-pointers, while SMSU closed the opening 20 minutes shooting 42 percent with one 3-pointer.
Gooden connected on two 3-pointers and also converted a three-point play in the first four minutes of the second half to give the Dragons a 41-35 lead.
Shaw hit a jumper to cut the deficit to 41-37, but the Dragons answered with a game-changing 7-0 run to build an 11-point advantage with 14 minutes remaining.
Gooden would later hit back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the second half to give MSUM a 58-48 lead with just under nine minutes left in the game. SMSU rebounded back with a Braaten 3-pointer and layup and a Stevens basket to pull within 58-55 with 7:16 left in the game.
Stevens would connect on a turnaround jumper to pull the Mustangs within 63-59 at the 6:08 mark, but the Dragons' Timaris Brown and Isa El-Amin each drilled 3-pointers over the next minute-plus, to extend the margin to double digits and the Mustangs were not able to make the comeback.
