MARSHALL, Minn. – No. 2 seed Southwest Minnesota State’s Matt Zager (21) and Lavione West (19) each scored career-highs to lead the Mustangs to a hard-fought 99-92 victory over No. 7 seed Minnesota Duluth in the quarterfinals of the NSIC/Sanford Health Men’s Basketball Tournament.
SMSU (17-10), ranked No. 5 in the NCAA Central Region rankings released today, shot 54.2 percent (32 of 59) from the field and overcame UMD’s 58.5 percent (31 of 53) shooting.
Zager connected on 7 of 9 shots from the field, while West made 7 of 10 from the field and added four rebounds. Jordan Miller added 21 points for the Mustangs, while William Giddings and Vinard Birch each chipped in with 11 points.
Brett Ervin led UMD (14-13) with 25 points on 9 of 11 shooting from the field.
SMSU will now advance to the NSIC tournament semifinals on Saturday night at 7:30 and take on No. 6 seed Winona State. The game will be played at Taylor Arena at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, Minn.
UMD held an 81-77 lead with six minutes and 22 seconds left in the game, but SMSU put together a decisive 7-0 run to build an 84-81 lead with 4:10 left in the game and never trailed again.
UMD cut the deficit to 84-83 with 3:34 following a field goal by Riley Walker, but the Mustangs put together a 6-1 run in the next minute to extend the margin to 90-84.
Both teams shot well from the field in the opening half with UMD finishing at 64 percent (16 of 25) with a pair of 3-pointers, while SMSU shot 50 percent (17 of 34) with three 3-pointers.
SMSU held the lead for much of the opening half, including opening up a 27-20 lead with nine minutes and 15 seconds left in the half following a layup by Lavione West.
UMD answered back and cut the lead to 27-26, before SMSU scored five straight to push the lead to 32-26 on a Zager jumper. The Bulldog tied the twice in the final three and a half minutes, before SMSU took a 44-42 halftime lead.
Ervin led the Bulldogs with nine first half points, while William Giddings, Vinard Birch and West each scored eight in the opening half.
SMSU pushed the lead to five points on three different occasions to start the second half, but UMD slowed chipped into the lead and took its first lead of the game at 58-56 with 13:59 left in the game on a layup by Dan Kornbaum.
UMD pushed the lead to 63-56 at the 13:18 mark, before SMSU rallied with a 9-0 to take the lead back at 65-63 with 11:34 left in the game.
UMD once again took a 76-69 lead with 8:47 on the clock, before a 6-0 run, following a West 3-pointer and a Zager three-point play, trimmed the UMD lead to 76-75. The Bulldogs came back and pushed the lead to four points, before the key run by SMSU to regain the lead and hold on for the victory.
SMSU forced UMD into 20 turnovers and held a 33-14 scoring advantage in points off of turnovers.
SMSU made 29 of 36 free throw attempts, while UMD finished the game making 24 of 29 from the foul line.
SMSU and Winona State will meet for the third time this season, with the Warriors winning both games. WSU won 79-72 in Marshall on Dec. 16 and 69-68 in Winona on Jan. 28.