BURNSVILLE – The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference announced Wednesday that Southwest Minnesota State University men’s basketball player Ryan Bruggeman has been named first team All-NSIC, while teammate Carter Kirk has been named second team All-NSIC as selected by the league’s 16 head coaches.

Bruggeman is the first SMSU player to earn All-NSIC first team accolades in back-to-back seasons since Jordan Miller in 2012 and 2013. He is also just the seventh player in program history to earn first team All-NSIC honors twice in a career.

Bruggeman, 6-foot, junior guard from Pelican Rapids, is averaging a team-high 16.5 points per game and has dished out 173 assists, which currently ranks as the second highest in team single-season history. He also has recorded a team-high 53 steals and is shooting 45.4 percent (159 of 350) from the field and 84 percent (142 of 169) from the free throw line.

In NSIC play this season, Bruggeman finished second in the conference in assist/turnover ratio (2.9), third in assists (6.3), third in steals (1.6) eighth in scoring (16.9) and 10th in free throw pct. (83.5).

In his three-year career, Bruggeman currently ranks first in team history in assists (465), third in free throws made (356), third in steals (145), fourth in free throw pct. (83.8) and ninth in scoring (1,301).

Kirk, a 6-foot-8, senior center from Mountain Lake, earns All-NSIC honors for the first time in his career. He leads SMSU averaging 10.4 rebounds per game and is second in scoring at 15.2 ppg. Kirk is also shooting a team-high 61.2 percent (178 of 291) from the field , has a team-leading 29 blocked shots and has racked up 15 double-doubles.

In NSIC games, Kirk led the league in rebounding (10.6), was fourth in field goal pct. (60.9) and ranked 18th in scoring (15.0).

In the SMSU career record book, Kirk ranks first in field goal pct. (59.0), second in rebounds (842), sixth in blocked shots (88), sixth in field goals made (510), 10th in free throws made (243) and 10th in scoring (1,264).

Southwest Minnesota State, 22-7 overall and ranked No. 4 in this week’s NCAA Central Region rankings, return to the court on Saturday night in the quarterfinals of the NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament taking on Augustana. Game time is 5:30 at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Content courtesy of SMSU Athletic Communications