Lakeland, Fla. --- The Minnesota State men’s basketball team suffered a 78-65 loss to Limestone Saturday afternoon despite a 20-point effort by freshman forward Zach Romashko.  It marked MSU’s final contest in the Terrace Hotel/Ledger Media Tournament hosted by the Florida Southern College.

The Mavericks held the lead for the much of the first ten minutes of the first half before Limestone freshman guard Josh Corry started heating up from the outside with a barrage of three-pointers.

After Minnesota State opened its second five-point lead of the half at 16-11 with 11:03 remaining, Corry would score  16 of the next 39 points for the Saints, hitting four three-point field goals in doing so as Limestone opened a 40-31 halftime edge.   Corry led all players with 19 first half points.

The Mavericks shot 41.9 percent in the opening 20 minutes – a season-high for the first half this season – and were led offensively by Romashko who scored 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting.  Sophomore post Connor O'Brien added eight points and seven rebounds.

Limestone withstood every MSU run in the second half, including a spurt where MSU cut the deficit to five at 58-53 with 7:04 remaining.  The Saints answered that run with an 11-2 spurt to open its largest lead of the game at 67-55 and never look back.

Romashko hit on 8-of-14 field goals, to go with a 4-of-6 effort at the free throw line to lead all Mavericks in scoring with 20 points.  O’Brien and sophomore Travis Meinders each added 10 points in the loss.  The ten points by Meinders established a new career-high while O’Brien finished with a team-high nine rebounds.

Limestone, which was led in scoring by Douglass who had 28 while Corry added 22 points, including six three-pointers.  The Saints shot 48.4 percent from the floor while Minnesota State shot 40.7.  Limestone won the battle of the glass 38-33.

Minnesota State (1-3) opens the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference portion of its schedule Friday when it travels to Wayne State.  Tip-off is set for 8 p.m.