Taking In Jr Day And A Game At Southwest On Hawaiian Night

Mustang Men Win Defensive Struggle over Wayne State on Hawaiian Night

MARSHALL, MINN. - Kevin Andrews scored a game-high 14 points on 6 of 9 shooting to lead Southwest Minnesota State to a hard-fought 49-41 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference victory over Wayne State on Saturday night in Marshall in front of a packed house of 3,568 in the R/A Facility on "Hawaiian Night".

The victory was SMSU's fifth in a row and eighth in the last nine games. SMSU is now 15-5 overall, 8-3 NSIC, while Wayne State falls to 8-10 overall, 4-7 NSIC.

It was a defensive struggle for all 40 minutes as both teams struggled to score in the contest as SMSU was held to its second lowest scoring total of the season, while the 41 points was a season-low for WSC.

Wayne State jumped to an early 10-2 lead in the game's first six minutes and continued to hold the lead for the remainder of the first half including building a 24-15 lead with 25 seconds left in the half before SMSU's Andy Beilke closed out the first half with a critical three-pointer to cut the Wildcat lead to 24-18 at halftime.

SMSU shot just 29.2 percent in the first half (7 of 24) and committed 10 turnovers. WSC held a 22 to 6 scoring advantage in the paint in the opening 20 minutes.

SMSU started the second half fast cutting into the lead in the first 90 seconds to trail 24-22. The Mustangs continued to pour it on over the next few minutes as SMSU opened the half on a 17-5 run to build a 35-29 lead with 11:45 left in the game on a three-pointer by DeAnthony Zanders. WSC scored five straight points to pull within 35-34 with 10:22 left, before SMSU countered with its own run over the next five minutes to extend the lead to 42-36 with five minutes left.

Wayne State scored with 3:20 left to cut the SMSU lead to 42-38, but on SMSU's next possession Taylor Huseby got the SMSU home crowd rocking with a reverse dunk to give SMSU a 44-38 lead with just over three minutes left in the contest. The Wildcats' David Walters connected on three-pointer with 43 seconds remaining to make the score 44-41, but SMSU was able to make five of six free throws down the stretch to earns its 10th straight home victory over WSC.

Andy Beilke was the only other Mustang to score in double figures with 10 points off the bench on 3 of 7 shooting. Ross DeMasi, SMSU's second leading scorer, was held to just three points but did pull down a game-high nine rebounds. SMSU outrebounded WSC 32-24, marking the 17th time in 20 games this season the Mustangs have held a rebound advantage.

Jonathon Thomas led Wayne State with 12 points and had five blocked shots.

Southwest Minnesota State will continue conference play next weekend with a pair of road games at Minnesota Duluth on Friday, Jan. 30 and at Bemidji State on Saturday, Jan. 31.