WAYNE, Neb. – Southwest Minnesota State's frantic second-half comeback came up just short on Tuesday night in a 69-67 setback to Wayne State College in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference men's basketball inside Rice Auditorium.
 
SMSU dropped its third straight game and falls to 18-7 overall, 13-6 NSIC.
 
WSC, which held a 16-point lead in the second half, improves to 15-10 overall, 9-10 NSIC. Cody McCullough led the Wildcats with 17 points and 11 rebounds.
 
SMSU's Steven Kramer led all scorers tying a career-high with 21 points, socring 17 in the second half, on 5 of 8 shooting and 10 of 10 from the free throw line. Jakob Braaten added 13 points while Dunwa Omot chipped in with 12 points. Omot's second 3-pointer of the night was the 200^th of his career to become the seventh player in team history to reach the milestone.
 
WSC held a 44-28 advantage with just under 17 minutes left in the game before SMSU rallied and had a pair chances to regain the lead, including one with 10 seconds remaining.
 
SMSU finished the game shooting 36 percent (20 of 55), including 7 of 20 from 3-point range. WSC made 24 of 55 field goals (44 percent), but was limited to just 32 percent in the final half.
 
Calvin Buss pulled down a career-high nine rebounds to pace the Mustangs and also scored four points on two dunks. Aeron Stevens scored seven points and grabbed six rebounds.
 
SMSU scored the first five points and held an 8-4 lead before WSC rallied and took its first lead of the game at 17-15 midway through the half.
 
WSC used a 10-2 run to build a 24-17 advantage with six minutes remaining before SMSU had its best response of the half. A pair of Mason Lund free throws, followed by a Buss dunk, a 3-pointer by Mekhi Shaw and layup by Kramer put the Mustangs back in the lead at 26-24 with 3:56 left.
 
WSC however had its own big answer closing the final 3:38 on a 15-2 run, including scoring the last 10 points to build a 39-28 halftime.
 
SMSU was limited to 35 percent shooting, while WSC shot a blistering 56 percent in the first 20 minutes.
 
WSC scored the first five points of the second half to push the margin to 44-28 with 16 and a half minutes left in the game. SMSU struggled to shot in the opening five minutes of the half with Buss slamming home a dunk for the team's first field goal with just over 15 minutes left.
 
The dunk sparked a 21-7 run over a six and a half minute span with Kramer scoring eight points to pull the Mustangs to within 53-52 with 8:54 remaining.
 
After Braaten missed a potential go-ahead 3-point field goal, WSC was able to fend off the rally with back-to-back 3-pointers to push the lead to 59-54 with 6:32 left.
 
SMSU would continue to fight back and pulled to within 65-62 after two Braaten free throws with 32 second remaining. The SMSU defense would force a WSC turnover and Omot cut the deficit to 65-64 with 26 seconds on the clock after two more free throws. On the ensuing possession, the Mustangs forced another turnover to setup a chance to regain the lead, but Shaw's floater from just inside the free throw line rimmed out and WSC was able to secure the rebound. WSC made all four free throws in the closing seconds to secure its fourth straight win over SMSU in Wayne.
 
SMSU returns to action on Saturday for the final regular season home game of the season facing Minnesota Crookston for 'Senior Night' starting at 5 p.m. inside the R/A Facility.