BEMIDJI — The No. 15 SMSU mens basketball team put together a consistent offensive effort against Bemidji State on Friday night to open its weekend road trip with an 83-66 road win in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play.

Jakob Braaten and Mason Lund led the Mustangs offensively in the victory, tallying 24 and 20 points respectively with four 3-pointers each. Braaten shot 8 of 15 from the field while Lund shot 8 of 9, with Lund also grabbing a game-high eight total rebounds and three offensive boards.

Mekhi Shaw dished out six assists for the Mustangs while turning it over twice. He made up for those rare turnovers with three steals on the defensive end, and also scored 8 points.

Aeron Stevens and Landon Pokorski added 10 and 12 points respectively for SMSU.

The game was tied at 34-all with two minutes remaining in the first half when SMSU surged ahead. Braaten hit a pair of go-ahead free throws and Stevens and Shaw hit back-to-back layups to give SMSU a 6-point lead at halftime.

Tate Olson opened the second half with a 3-pointer for the Beavers, but that was as close as Bemidji got to the Mustangs. Stevens scored on consecutive possessions to bring SMSU’s lead up to 7 points and the Mustangs went on to lead by as many as 19.

SMSU improves to 16-3 overall and 11-2 in the NSIC with the win. Elsewhere in the conference, Minot State beat Concordia-St. Paul 92-78 to give the first-place Mustangs a two-game lead over CSP while maintaining their one-game advantage over Minot State.

The Mustangs will look to continue to secure their place atop the conference when they visit St. Cloud State (13-8, 9-4 NSIC) today at 3:30 p.m.