MANKATO, MN – Leading from the first basket to the last, the University of Mary men's basketball team earned their second straight win over a long-time nemesis. After knocking off Winona State University at home last Saturday, the Marauders claimed a 69-68 win at Minnesota State University to open a weekend road trip.
 
Treyton Mattern led a Marauders attack that proved incredibly efficient from behind the arc and was highly productive when given a second chance with the ball on offensive possessions. Mattern blistered the nets from deep, draining 4-of-5 shots from behind the arc on his way to a team-leading 20 points. UMary was 7-for-12 on 3s in the first half and 10-for-21 for the game.
 
The victory is just the second road win in UMary (10-9 overall, 6-9 Northern Sun) program history over Minnesota State (13-8, 7-8) and the fifth overall in 18 meetings. The win is also the second straight for the Marauders over the Mavericks.
 
An early 8-0 run featuring back to back treys by Mattern and Kam Warrens and a layup by Veljko Radakovic gave the Marauders a 16-7 advantage. Keeping the Mavericks offense in check, the Marauders entered intermission with a 38-28 lead. In addition to accuracy from deep, UMary outscored Minnesota State 10-0 on second chance points in the opening half and finished with a 13-2 edge at the end of the game.
 
The Marauders intensified their pressure on the Mavericks to start the second half, scoring 13 straight points to grow the UMary lead to 51-28. Four different Marauders scored during the run with Mattern and Warrens hitting treys.
 
Back to back baskets by Zyon Smith, first a layup followed by a trey, gave the Marauders their largest lead of the night at 58-32.
 
The Mavericks soon found their footing and slowly whittled down the Marauders lead. Minnesota State pulled within 65-61 with under a minute to play before Mattern responded with a pair of free throws to push the Marauders lead back to six. Taking advantage of a UMary miss from the floor and a couple at the line, the Mavericks closed their deficit to two on a Trevor Moore 3-pointer with eight seconds to play. Fouled on the shot, Moore converted the free throw for a 4-point play as Minnesota State clawed within 68-67.
 
Smith then hit a free throw with 7.6 seconds left to increase the UMary lead to 69-67. Tight defense by Warrens then forced a bad pass and a turnover for Minnesota State before the Mavericks could get a shot off. UMary still wasn't able to breathe easy until a subsequent halfcourt attempt by Malik Willingham failed to fall as the buzzer sounded.  
 
Warrens finished with 15 points and seven rebounds for UMary. The senior hit three treys in six attempts during the game.
 
Gertautas Urbonavicius added 11 points and six rebounds for the Marauders. Lucas Mayer and Smith both had eight points and two steals. Mayer also added five assists and five rebounds.
 
Willingham led all players with 26 for MSU while Moore added 21.
 
UMary shot 44.8% for the game while holding Minnesota State to 40.6%, including an 8-for-28 effort behind the line. While UMary finished the game 7-for-16 at the line, Minnesota State was 7-for-8.
 
The Marauders close out the weekend at Concordia-St. Paul on Saturday, January 28. Game time is 3:30 pm at the Gangelhoff Center in St.  Paul, MN. It's the last crossover game of the year between the NSIC North and South divisions before playing seven straight against divisional rivals to close out the season.
 
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