Box Score Mankato, Minn. --- The #11 Minnesota State men’s basketball team was pushed to the limit Friday evening, but the Mavericks were able to answer Northern State each step of the way as they took home the win at 83-76.

With the win, MSU improved to 11-1 on the season with a 7-1 in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play. With the loss, the Wolves fell to 11-4 on the year and 6-2 in league play.\

Minnesota State looked to be in the driver’s seat entering the second half with a 12-point lead, but the Wolves had other ideas as they slowly chipped away at the Mavericks lead and pulled within one at 67-66 with 3:23 remaining in the game.

With the Wolves knocking at the door the Mavericks were able to respond quickly behind the steady shooting of sophomore Zach Monaghan who accounted for 14 of MSU’s final 16 points in the contest, 10 of which came from the line, to secure the 83-76 win.

Monaghan would lead all scorers with a career-high 29 points, while shooting a perfect 12-of-12 from the charity stripe. Zach Romashko and Jarvis Williams would also break into double-digits with 15 and 13 points, respectively.

Collin Pryor paced the NSU offense with 18 points, while Dustin Tetzlaff added 14 points.

Despite a slow start, the Mavericks finished the first half with quite the flurry as they tallied 36 points in the final 13 minutes of the half, to take a 45-33 lead into the locker room, behind some solid shooting from several contributors.

It was Romashko coming off the bench who had the biggest impact as he poured in 13 points in the first half. Romashko finished the half shooting 3-of-5 from long range and 4-of-7 from the field. Williams also had a solid showing in the opening frame as he posted nine points and four rebounds.

As a team, MSU connected on 18-of-34 (52.9%) of its shots from the field compared to NSU’s showing of 13-of-29 (44.8%) from the field.

Michael Emge led the Wolves with eight points in the first half, while his teammate Jared Hannigan added six.
The Mavericks return to action Saturday as they host the MSU Moorhead Dragons. The opening tip is set for 4 p.m.

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