Southwest minnesota state (18-9, 14-4 nsic) held concordia (20-7, 13-5 nsic) to a season-low 30.2 percent shooting (16-53) and outrebounded the golden bears 44-22 to earn a 59-45 win on saturday night in marshall.

the two teams began the night tied for second place in the northern sun conference standings and with the win smsu secures sole possesion of second place, while the bears will have to wait for the outcome of the upper iowa/crookston game on sunday. The game was postoned in fayette because of weather. Concordia is currently in a tie with northern state for third in the nsic.

the mustangs jumped out to a 7-0 lead and never trailed in the contest as the smsu built a 27-20 halftime lead. In the second half, the mustangs pushed the lead to 33-23 with 16 minutes left but the golden bears rallied to pull within 35-31 on a dunk by choul chany. Smsu went on a 15-0 run over the next four minutes to take a commanding 50-31 lead.

jason birr was the only concordia player in double-fugures with a team-high 10 points. marlon walker added nine and chany eight in the loss.

the bears finished the night shooting only 4-17 from thee point range and 9-14 from the free throw line. Smsu shot 22-50 from the field, 6-21 from beyond the arc and 9-12 from the free throw line.

matt fletcher led the mustangs with 19 points, while ryan krome added 15 and jeremy vanklompenburg had 14.

the pairings for the nsic tournament will be announced on sunday. The bears will host a first round game at 8:00 on feb. 28th with the opponent not yet known.

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