Photo by Jake McNeill: Southwest Minnesota State University forward Aeron Stevens (front) reacts after the final buzzer of the Mustangs' Northern State Intercollegiate Conference mens basketball win over Wayne State, Saturday in Marshall. The Mustangs overcame an 18-point halftime deficit to claim a 75-71 win to get back above .500 in conference play.

MARSHALL — Improved ball security and a big second-half from Jakob Braaten helped the Southwest Minnesota State University mens basketball team mount an improbable comeback against Wayne State in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play on Saturday. The Mustangs trailed by 18 points at the half, but SMSU took better care of the ball after the break and Braaten exploded for 20 second-half points to lead the Mustangs to a 75-71 win.

“We go into halftime thinking the score is zero-zero. It’s an entirely new game,” Braaten said. “We know we didn’t play our best game in the first half, so we just tried to forget about it and move on.”

SMSU took its first lead of the game 11 minutes into the second half when Mekhi Shaw converted a layup for a 55-53 lead, and knocked down a free throw on the Mustangs’ next trip down the floor to give SMSU a 3-point cushion.

Wayne State wasn’t ready to give up, however; the Mustangs never got their lead up to more than 5 points, but they also never let the Wildcats tie the game back up or take the lead.

A Braaten layup with 61 seconds to play gave SMSU a 73-68 lead, but Darshan Thomas responded with a 3-pointer and the Wildcats forced a turnover from Braaten to get the opportunity to tie the game with 21 seconds left.

Still, SMSU locked down defensively to force a Matt Noll miss, and Micah Schlaak grabbed the defensive rebound and knocked down both of his free throws with six seconds to play to ice the game.

“We know this is a game of runs. The NSIC is super competitive, so you can never get too high or too low within the game, but we try to use small energy plays — diving on a loose ball, getting a turnover, something like that — to boost our energy,” Braaten said. “To start the second half, we did a good job of that and we just carried it through the whole match.”

Schlaak got off to a hot start, making each of his three field goal attempts with a pair of 3-pointers for 8 points at the half. Yet, the rest of the team shot 28% from the field and 20% from 3-point range as the Mustangs went into the locker room trailing 42-28.

Schlaak finished the night with 13 points, tying Aeron Stevens as SMSU’s second-leading scorer. His seven total rebounds and two offensive rebounds were also both team-highs, though Winona State finished the night with a 12-5 advantage in second-chance points.

Braaten scored 2 points on 1 of 4 shooting in the first half, but came alive after the break. He finished the night with 22 points on 6 of 11 shooting from the field and knocked down 10 of his 11 free-throw attempts. Braaten’s six assists also tied Noll for a game-high, and his five steals put him one-up on Noll for a game-high.

The Wildcats outscored the Mustangs 16-0 in points off turnovers and 10-0 in fastbreak points in the first half, led by four steals from Noll and another pair apiece from Aurrion Harris and JJ Ferrin. Steals from Braaten and Shaw gave SMSU their only takeaways of the frame.

The second half was a much different story. SMSU turned the ball over just once while forcing seven from the Wildcats, resulting in a 14-0 advantage in points off turnovers. In addition to Braaten’s passing, Stevens finished with four assists while Shaw dished out three.

“I think in the first half, we were trying to get ours a little bit too much rather than making the easy pass,” Braaten said. “I think you saw in the second half that, once we got the drive-and-kicks, Micah and LP [Landon Pokorski] hit a couple threes and then it opened up things for Aeron inside, me and Mekhi inside, and everyone else.”

Trailing by 15, SMSU started to get cooking four minutes into the second half. A pair of Braaten free throws and a Schlaak 3-pointer cut the deficit down to 10 points, and Pokorski came up with a steal and a pair of 3-pointers on consecutive possessions — the latter of which came with a hand in his face in transition — to cut the gap down to 48-44.

Pokorski made each of the four shots he attempted on the day, all of which came from beyond the arc. As a team, SMSU shot 9 of 27 from long range with Schlaak also making three of his five attempts.

Benjamin Kerkhoff answered Pokorski’s second 3 with one of his own, but the Mustangs stayed persistent. A Shaw layup, a low-post block by Brayson Boike and a Braaten and-1 tied up the game at 53 points apiece with 9:38 to play.

Noll led Wayne State with 23 points on 8 of 15 shooting, making seven of his eight attempts from the free-throw line, while Andrew Stokes added another 17 points. JJ Ferrin and Kai Smith also chipped in 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Wayne State scored each of the game’s first 6 points before Schlaak interrupted the run with a 3-pointer, but a pair of layups from Stokes and a Ferrin 3 gave the Wildcats a 13-3 lead through the game’s first five-and-a-half minutes.

The Mustangs kept pace for the next 10 minutes, but the Wildcats pulled away late in the half with a pair of 3s from Ferrin and Smith, a Stokes free throw, and a Noll jumper giving the Wildcats a 9-2 run to bring their lead to its apex of 41-21.

SMSU improves to 3-4 (2-1 NSIC) with the win and hosts Division III North Central on Monday at 11 a.m. for Elementary Day.