ST. CLOUD – St. Cloud State, the preseason co-favorite to win the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, held a 48-29 rebound edge and used the advantage to earn an 80-60 victory over Southwest Minnesota State in NSIC men’s college basketball on Friday night at Halenbeck Hall.

SCSU (8-2, 3-1 NSIC), winners of three straight games, was led by Sean Smith, who scored 25 points on 10 of 11 shooting while grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds. Gage Davis added 19 points for the Huskies with 16 coming in the second half. The Huskies held a 42-22 advantage in points in the paint and also scored 17 second chance points.

SMSU senior Ryan Bruggeman led the team with 16 points on 7 of 20 shooting. He now has 1,620 career points and is 18 shy of tying Jacob Fahl (1999-03) as the program’s all-time leading scorer. Kenny Byers added 14 points and was the only other Mustang to reach double figures in scoring.

SMSU, which drops to 6-4 overall, 1-3 NSIC, trailed by 21 points in the second half, but fought back to cut the deficit to 57-49 with 11 minutes and 30 seconds left in the game. SCSU answered with a key 8-0 run, holding SMSU scoreless for more than five minutes, to pull away and earn the victory.

SMSU started the game strong and held a 16-11 lead at the 11:35 mark following a layup by Byers.

SCSU answered with six straight points to regain the lead, but a field goal by Bruggeman put SMSU back in front at 18-17 with 8:42 remaining. It was the last time SMSU would hold a lead in the half as SCSU rallied with seven straight points.

Bruggeman would connect on a 3-pointer with 2:30 left in the half to cut the Huskie advantage to 29-26, but SCSU closed the half on an 11-2 run to build a 40-28 halftime lead. SCSU’s leading scorer, Davis, was held scoreless for nearly the entire half, but he drilled a half-court buzzer-beater to push the lead to double digits at half.

SCSU stormed out of the gates in the second half, making its first six shots, to extend the margin to 53-32 with 16 minutes left in the game.

SMSU wouldn’t go away and rallied with a 14-2 run over the next four minutes to cut the deficit to single digits at 55-46 following a field goal by Nick Dufault. After a SCSU basket, the lead would be cut to 57-49 moments later after a three-point play by Kenny Byers.

SCSU then started its key run to build the lead to 69-52 with 5:27 remaining. The Mustangs would make one last push, scoring six straight points to make the score 69-58, but that was as close as SMSU would come for the remainder of the game.

Braedan Hanson led SMSU with five rebounds, while Michael Lee, Steven McNease, Byers and Bruggeman all grabbed four rebound apiece.

Southwest Minnesota State finishes up the weekend today taking on Minnesota Duluth (5-3, 2-2 NSIC) with tip-off set for 5:30 p.m. at Romano Gym in Duluth.

Content courtesy

of SMSU Athletic

Communications