Photo by Jake McNeill Dunwa Omot (10) shoots a 3-pointer over a Minnesota State defender in the Mustangs’ 62-58 win over No. 14 Minnesota State in Marshall on Saturday afternoon.

MARSHALL — The Southwest Minnesota State men’s basketball team survived a late score against Minnesota State Saturday night, hanging on for a 62-58 win over the No. 14 Mavericks.

The Mustangs led by as many as 12 points in the final 10 minutes, but the Mavericks took a 1-point lead with 58 seconds remaining on a pair of free throws.

“They knocked down two or three threes right in a row, that kind of flipped the game and put us a little bit on our heels,” SMSU head coach Brad Bigler said. “We didn’t take advantage of some opportunities on our end, we missed a couple of buckets right at the rim and they were making threes on the other end and it turned into a photo finish.”

For the second time in as many days, Cliff McCray hit a clutch layup to take the lead for SMSU in the final minute. From there, a pair of free throws from Jake Phipps and another from Dunwa Omot put the game away for the Mustangs.

“That comes back to just the leadership of the group,” Bigler said of his team’s resilience after giving the Mavericks a late lead. “We’ve been through a lot already this year. Our thing lately has been to bend and do not break. That was kind of our message the whole time, and we didn’t break.”

SMSU came out the gate hot. They scored first, and while Minnesota State took the lead shortly after, the Mustangs took it back five minutes into the game and held onto it until the final three minutes.

Leading the offensive charge for SMSU was Omot, who led the team with 17 points on 6-14 shooting. His three assists were second on the team behind McCray’s four.

Phipps contributed 13 points as well, but his primary value came on the defensive end. He blocked four shots and altered many more.

The Mustangs struggled to create opportunities in transition in the game. They were outscored 17-0 in fast break points, but their lack of transition scoring was balanced out by their shooting efficiency in half-court offensive sets.

The Mustangs shot 36% from behind the arc, including 7-15 shooting in the first half. Still, they tapered off in the second half, shooting just 1-7.

Forcing turnovers was a big part of the Mustangs’ success in the game. Majok Majouk, Omot, and McCray all had multiple steals, leading SMSU to a 15-4 advantage in the turnover battle. As a result, the Mavericks were only able to score 3 points off turnovers in the game.

Rebounding was a struggle for the Mustangs. Minnesota State grabbed 14 offensive rebounds on the night and outrebounded the Mustangs 46-32, but the SMSU interior defense helped to stop the bleeding. Despite all the offensive rebounds, the Mavericks scored seven second-chance points.

The win comes a day after another hard-fought win over Concordia-St. Paul, in which the Mustangs walked away with a 67-63 victory.

“I think when you can win those close games, it gives you confidence for the next time you’re ahead,” Bigler said. “We felt the opposite of that earlier in the season, we lost a couple of close ones to Truman, Augustana, where we’re two layups away from two more wins right now. It’s kind of evening itself now, hopefully when we get those two wins now, hopefully we can build off it.”

Following the win, SMSU (7-4) will host Northland (Wisconsin) Monday at 11:30 a.m. for Elementary and Community Day. More than 600 local elementary school students have been invited to attend the game and admission for all fans is free.

SMSU 62, Minnesota State 58

SMSU 33 29

MSU 24 34

SCORING (FG-FGA-PTS): SMSU (Omot 6-14-17; Phipps 4-8-13; Anthony Costello 4-11-10)

PASSING (AST-TO): SMSU (McCray 4-0; Phipps 3-0; Omot 3-2)

REBOUNDING (ORB-TRB): SMSU (Mason Lund 7; Noah Chamberlain 3-6; Majok Majouk 3-6)

DEFENSIVE (STL-BLK): SMSU (Phipps 0-4; McCray 3-0; Majouk 2-1; Omot 2-0; Lund 1-1)