Marshall, Minn. - The University of Sioux Falls Men's Basketball team dropped a tight contest with Southwest Minnesota State tonight. The Mustangs defeated the Cougars 80-74.

The first half was tightly contested with SMSU taking a slim lead of 32-31 into the halftime break. In that first period the Cougars made 3 from behind the arc and shot 34% from the field. SMSU shot 40% and also made 3 from behind the arc. Southwest had a lead of 12 at one point in the first half but the Cougars were able to rally to only to be down by 1 at the break.

In the second half both teams started to step up their offensive production. Southwest won the half 48-43 and both teams shot well above their percentage from the previous half. USF shot 46% from the field and made 5 3s in the half. The Mustangs shot it even better on the night going 4-7 from 3 and shooting 65% from the field for the half. SMSU shot over 50% for the game while USF only shot 40%. USF had 34 points in the paint compared to 32 from Southwest and the Cougars won the rebounding battle 37-35. The Coo had 19 points off of Mustang turnovers and had 11 fast break points. SMSU had 37 bench points compared to 15 for USF. 

LEADERS

Jack Thompson had a game high 18 points to pace the Cougars in scoring. Shawn Warrior had 15 points for his 6th game in a row in double figures, and Noah Puetz had 14 as well.  

Shawn Warrior led the Coo in rebounding with 7. Zane Alm and Jake Kettner also added 6 boards each. Warrior and Alm both had 3 steals as well. 

Jack Thompson led the way in assists for USF with 5. Kettner followed up with 4 and Noah Puetz had 3. Kettner, Puetz, Thompson, and Warrior all played over 33 minutes for the Coo tonight.  

UP NEXT

The Cougars will be back in action on Saturday December 16. They will be at the Stewart Center on the campus of USF to host Wayne State with the game starting at 3:30PM.

For all things USF Men's Basketball, be sure to download the USF Cougars app as well as follow along on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter!