Box Score

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Southwest Minnesota State's KJ Davis poured in a career-high 26 points on 9 of 14 shooting, while senior teammate Turner Moen added 16 points, seven rebounds and a career-high five steals to pace SMSU to a 79-64 victory over Augustana in the quarterfinals of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Men's Basketball Tournament on Saturday night.
 
SMSU, the No. 1 seed from the South Division, improves to 23-7 overall, extending its winning streak to nine in a row. SMSU also entered the game ranked No. 4 in this week's NCAA Central Region rankings.
 
Augustana, the No. 5 seed from the South Division, ends its season at 16-14. Adam Dykman led the Vikings with 17 points and eight rebounds.
 
SMSU, the defending NSIC Tournament champions, will now advance to the tournament semifinals on Monday afternoon starting at 2:30 versus either St. Cloud State or Sioux Falls.
 
Carter Kirk recorded his 16^th double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds and in the process became the program's all-time leader in rebounds. Kirk now has 852 in his career, moving past Frank Belmont, who recorded 848 from 1971-75.
 
Ryan Bruggeman also finished in double figure scoring for the Mustangs with 11 points and a game-high eight assists. Bruggeman has 181 assists this season and is now four away from tying the program single-season record of 185 set by Marques Pena in 2000-01.
 
SMSU used a strong defensive effort in the second half to pull away midway through the half. SMSU maintained a 54-51 lead with 11 minutes and 42 seconds remaining before scoring 10 straight points and holding Augustana scoreless for more than five minutes in building a 64-51 lead with 6:30 left in the game.
 
John Warren finally ended the Vikings drought with a field goal, but the lead never dipped below 11 points the remainder of the game as SMSU defeated Augustana in the NSIC Tournament for the second straight season.
 
The first half featured eight lead changes and was tied twice. SMSU opened the game with back-to-back 3-pointers by Davis and Moen and connected on its first four shots from the field to build an early 10-2 advantage. SMSU then went more than six minutes without a point---missing eight straight field goal attempts—as Augustana took its first lead of the game at 11-10 with 11 minutes and 44 seconds remaining.
 
Moen ended the Viking run with seven straight points put SMSU back in front at 17-11 midway through the half.
 
Neither team held a lead of more than three points the remainder of the half as SMSU used a late layup by Davis to take a 35-34 lead into halftime.
 
SMSU shot 47 percent in the first half with five 3-pointers, while Augustana shot 41 percent and also hit on five 3-pointers.
 
Augustana scored five straight points early the second half to build a 43-40 lead with 16 minutes remaining. SMSU had a big counter to the deficit as a Davis 3-pointer started an SMSU 8-0 run, capped by a 3-pointer from Kenny Byers to give SMSU a 48-43 advantage with 14:07 left in the game.
 
Augustana would cut the deficit to three points on two occasions in the next several minutes before SMSU used the key run midway through the half to pull away for the victory.
 
SMSU finished the game shooting 49 percent (27 of 55) from the field, while making 10 of 22 from 3-point range. Augustana held a 35-29 rebound edge and outscored SMSU 13-4 in second chance points.