ABERDEEN, S.D. – The Southwest Minnesota State men's basketball team secured its third Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference regular season title and first since the 2008-09 season after earning a dominant 103-71 victory over the Northern State Wolves on Saturday afternoon at Wachs Arena.
SMSU closes the regular season with a 21-7 overall record and a 16-6 mark in NSIC play. NSU ends the year 2-26 overall and 1-21 in NSIC play.
Mason Lund led the SMSU offense with 20 points on 8 of 12 shooting while pulling down a team-high nine rebounds in the win.
Aeron Stevens added 17 points and four rebounds, while
Dunwa Omot went a 4 of 5 from beyond the arc to chip in 14 points.
Mekhi Shaw rounded out the scorers in double figures with 13 points and a team-high six assists.
The Mustangs kicked off the first half on a hot streak, making 6 of 7 field goals through the first four minutes to climb to a commanding 15-2 lead with 16 minutes to play. A 3-pointer for the Wolves interrupted the scoring run before SMSU again pushed its foot on the gas to spark another 20-4 run to give the Mustangs a 26-point lead midway through the half.
SMSU again held the Wolves to just two baskets over the following three minutes in building to a 46-14 advantage with just over six minutes left in the half. NSU would muster up seven points down the stretch but SMSU would counter with twice as many, outpacing the Wolves to a 60-23 lead at halftime.
It is SMSU's first time scoring at least 60 points in one half since scoring 61 points in the second half against Jamestown (N.D.) on Nov. 21, 2014.
The Mustangs closed the first half shooting a season-high 76 percent (22 of 29) from the field including 71 percent (12 of 17) from beyond the arc while limiting NSU to 27 percent shooting and only three makes from downtown.
SMSU opened the second half right where it left off, pursuing a 14-3 run to lead by 48 points at the next media timeout. The Wolves spent the next two minutes on an 8-3 run to trim the deficit below 40 points, but the Mustangs would not go away, using four different scorers to maintain a lead of over 50 points with just over seven minutes to play.
The remainder of the game would go the way of SMSU.
Due to the NSIC point system, the Mustangs are the No. 2 seed in the NSIC Tournament and are scheduled to play the winner of the game between the No. 7 and No. 10 seeds on March 1 at 7 p.m.
