Photo by Jake McNeill Southwest Minnesota State guard Jakob Braaten dribbles into the paint on a fast break in the first half of a womens basketball game against Northern State at the R/A Facility in Marshall on Saturday. The Mustangs defeated the Wolves 80-46.

The Southwest Minnesota State men’s basketball team will look to keep its momentum rolling this weekend against Minnesota State and Winona State after picking up a pair of lopsided home wins last week.

The Mustangs are coming off an 80-46 win over Northern State on Saturday and an 83-51 win over UMary on Friday. The home victories were their second and third straight after a 77-67 road win over Minnesota Crookston the week prior. True freshman Aeron Stevens scored a career-high 26 points against the Marauders while Jake Phipps and Mason Lund led the Mustangs with 15 points each against the Wolves.

With the three-game win streak, the Mustangs currently sit in fifth place in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference with a 9-5 conference record and 12-8 overall record. They’ll have a tough test on Friday night with the 19-2 (13-2 NSIC) Mavericks coming into the R/A Facility.

While they’re ranked No. 2 in Division II, the Mavericks have looked vulnerable as of late. They sustained their first loss of the season against No. 19 Minot State on Jan. 19 and, after defeating No. 3 Minnesota State Moorhead on Saturday, suffered their second loss in five games against Minnesota Duluth on Tuesday, 85-70. The Mavericks were outscored by 15 points in the second half after being tied at 43-43 at the end of the first.

SMSU has won each of its last two games against Minnesota State in the R/A Facility, including a 62-58 win over the Mavericks last year behind 17 points from Dunwa Omot.

When the Mustangs headed to Mankato this year, the Mavericks ended a four-game losing streak against SMSU with a 93-89 win. The Mustangs led 89-88 in the final minute but Justin Eagins connected on a go-ahead 3-pointer with 25 seconds to play and Malik Willingham put the game on ice at the free-throw line. Phipps and Stevens led the Mustangs with 19 and 18 points respectively in the game while Willingham scored a game-high 27 for the Mavericks.

Willingham ranks seventh in the conference this season with an average of 18.4 points per game on a 51.8% effective field goal percentage.

In addition to leading the NSIC in points per game with 89.9, the Mavericks are also the NSIC’s most efficient offense with a 50.2% field goal percentage. On the defensive end, they also rank fourth in the conference with a 42.1% opponent field goal percentage. The Mustangs are right behind them in fifth place, also with a 42.1% opponent field goal percentage and their offensive clip of 47.5% on 74.9 points per game ranks fifth in the NSIC.

The Mavericks have been consistently able to set themselves apart on the glass, averaging a plus-6.3 margin compared to SMSU’s plus-1.3 mark. Dylan Peeters leads the team with seven boards per game, good for ninth in the conference, while Phipps ranks 11th for SMSU at 6.7. Phipps’ 2.8 offensive rebounds per game also rank third in the NSIC.

Willingham and Eagins both rank top 10 in the NSIC in 3-pointers made per game. While the Mavericks have enough size to work the ball into the paint, they’re also one of the league’s best 3-point shooting teams with a team percentage of 37.7%. Their 194 made 3s trails only Concordia-St. Paul’s 205.

After Friday’s game against the Mavericks, the Mustangs will take on Winona State Saturday morning. The Warriors have been middling this year, their 8-7 NSIC record (13-8 overall) placing them eighth in the conference. Still, they’ve shown progress as of late. The Warriors have won three in a row, including an 83-72 win over No. 12 MSU Moorhead, and they picked up a 78-67 win over Concordia-St. Paul on Tuesday behind a 41-point outing from Connor Dillon. The junior guard shot 15-of-28 from the field and 8-of-14 from 3-point range in the win, earning NSIC Player of the Week honors. His 10 rebounds and four assists were both also team-highs.

Dillon’s big scoring day put him past Minnesota Crookston’s Blaize Sagna as the conference’s scoring leader this season, now averaging 22.3 points per game. His 58 made 3-pointers lead the conference and his 37% clip from beyond the arc gives him an effective field goal percentage of 54.9% on the season.

Phipps and Stevens lead the Mustangs’ offense with 15.5 and 12.4 points per game respectively. Phipps also ranks third in the NSIC with a 55.9% field goal percentage and his 16 made 3-pointers give him an astounding 59.5% effective field goal percentage on the year.

The Warriors have struggled in the turnover battle this season, ranking 12th in the NSIC with a minus-1.14 margin. Their 1.15 assist-to-turnover ratio also ranks 13th in the NSIC.

The Mustangs, meanwhile, have two of the conference’s top guards in terms of ability to force turnovers. Cofield leads the NSIC with two steals per game while Jakob Braaten adds another 1.4. Cofield’s four assists per game also place him fourth in the NSIC, trailing Willingham for third by less than a tenth of an assist per game. The Mustangs’ game against Minnesota State will tip off in the R/A Facility at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and they’ll get started against Winona State at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. A radio broadcast of the game can be found at 105.1 FM KARL while live video and stats are available online at SMSUmustangs.com.