MANKATO — Crown College’s warmup shooting shirt donned the three words of “no bad days”.
On Crown’s first possession Minnesota State freshman Colton Benson got a steal, drove to the basket, made a layup and drew a foul for an and-1 opportunity. He made the free throw, starting the beginning of Crown’s bad day as the Mavericks led wire-to-wire in a 106-74 home win.
“It’s great,” senior forward Malcolm Jones said. “It’s great to be back in (Taylor Center) and get a win. “There’s nothing better to start off the home games with a win.”
Crown appeared poised to stay in contention with the Mavericks. A triple from Crown’s Tristan Youngblood cut the MSU lead down to six points near the midway point of the first half.
To the dismay of the Crown faithful, that’s as close as it got on the scoreboard for the rest of the night. The final 13:10 of the first half was all Mavericks, who erupted to the tune of a dominating 45-14 run.
Jones finished the opening 20 minutes with 13 points, four rebounds and a block which forced a shot clock violation. Traijan Sain had 12 points. The Mavericks shot 25 of 36 from the floor and 9 of 15 from beyond the arc.
A 19-13 lead morphed into a 64-27 advantage at the half.
“We were just trying to get into the game as much as we could before we started to take off,” Jones said. “There’s no 20-point shot. You have to grind them out for a little bit before you get ahead. We started with the ball better. We had 22 assists to five turnovers. That’s a pretty good stat for a selfless basketball team.”
With the win the Mavericks improve to 4-1 on the season. MSU disposed of Northwest Missouri State 71-49 on Halloween and fell 75-53 to Pittsburg State two days later to complete the road trip in St. Joseph, Missouri.
MSU bounced back with an 81-63 win over Central Missouri Friday and claimed a 93-84 win over Henderson State Saturday to complete a road series in Pittsburg, Kansas.
But Monday provided this iteration of MSU basketball its first chance to make noise on its home floor. And it was loud.
“We all play well together, and when we’re on defense we’re all there for each other,” Jones said. “I know that I can trust my teammates to have my back, to have each other’s back, and I really like that. The brotherhood that we have is really good this year.”
Sain led all players with 17 points on 6 of 6 shooting with three makes from long range. Jones finished with 16 points, five rebounds and two steals. Carson Schweim had a game-best seven rebounds and had three points and a block. Arhman Lewis and David Harmon each had five assists.
MSU finished 40 of 71 from the floor, 13 of 31 from 3-point range and 13 of 19 from the free throw line. MSU also won the rebounding battle 35-33.
The Mavericks hit the road once again for the USF Classic this weekend in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. MSU plays Grand Valley State at 5 p.m. Friday and collides with Chardon State at 5 p.m. Saturday. Fans can catch both games on AM 1230 The Fan Mankato.
“It’s definitely a momentum builder,” Jones said of Monday’s win. “I think we’re ready to attack practice this week. Get even better this week and prepare for this weekend.”