ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Jakob Braaten scored a career-high 27 points while adding eight rebounds and six assists to lead Southwest Minnesota State to an 80-71 road victory over Concordia-St. Paul on Saturday night in NSIC men's college basketball.

Braaten finished the night making 9 of 12 field goals and was a perfect 8 of 8 from the free throw line.

SMSU earned its third straight victory and improves to 5-4 overall, 3-1 NSIC, while CSP, which was ranked in the Top 25 earlier this season, falls to 7-3 overall, 2-2 NSIC.

Three other Mustangs scored in double figures with Mason Lund pouring in 14 points with a pair of 3-pointers while also grabbing six rebounds. Micah Schlaak closed with 12 points and five rebounds with Mekhi Shaw adding 10 points to pace the Mustangs.

SMSU finished the game shooting 53 percent (31 of 59) from the field with five 3-pointers on 18 attempts. SMSU ended the game holding a 36-32 rebound advantage and outscored CSP 46-30 in points in the paint.

CSP was led by Ben Kopetzki's 19 points on 7 of 15 shooting with three 3-pointers. The Golden Bears shot 44 percent (27 of 62) from the field, including 9 of 26 from 3-point range.

CSP opened the game with a 3-pointer but SMSU answered with eight straight points and never trailed again in the game in earning its second straight win at CSP and third in the last four meetings. With SMSU leading 14-9 with 13 minutes left in the half, Lund connected on a jumper to spark a 13-0 to push the Mustang lead to 27-9 with 9:12 on the clock.

SMSU would later expand the margin to 34-16 with 6:31 left following two Braaten free throws, but CSP countered with an 11-2 run to pull within 36-27 with three minutes remaining. Lund hit another jumper to stop the run and help the Mustangs close the half on a 7-4 run and build a 43-31 halftime lead.

CSP would keep battling back and opened the second half with a quick run to cut the deficit to 51-42 with 14:46 left in the game. 

Kopetzki drilled a 3-pointer to make the score 61-50 midway through the second half, but Lund countered with a huge 3-pointer to push the margin back to 14 points.

CSP made one more push with under four minutes remaining, scoring five straight points to trim the deficit to 73-67, but Braaten came through with one of the biggest field goals of the game, making his lone 3-pointer of the night with 3:05 left to make the score 76-67. 

SMSU concludes the road trip on Sunday with a 2 p.m. match-up at Winona State.