ST. CLOUD — A second-half surge led the No. 23 Southwest Minnesota State University womens basketball team to a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference victory on Saturday night. After being tied up at 23 points apiece at halftime, the Mustangs outscored St. Cloud State 73-57 after the break.

The win gives SMSU its best start through 20 games in program history at 18-2 and keeps them tied with Concordia-St. Paul for second in the NSIC at 12-2, one game behind Minnesota State.

Audrey Swanson set a career-high with 24 points in the Mustangs’ win over Bemidji State on Friday and kept the momentum rolling into Saturday’s game against St. Cloud State with a career-high in rebounds. Swanson grabbed 17 boards to lead SMSU to a 45-30 rebounding advantage, with her three offensive boards trailing only St. Cloud’s Reagan Briggs and Paige Lambe’s four. Swanson was also SMSU’s second-leading scorer with 22 points on 7 of 17 shooting from the field and perfect 7 of 7 shooting from the charity stripe.

Bri Stoltzman led SMSU in scoring on the night with a game-high 31 points. She was efficient with her shots, shooting 11 of 15 from the field with a pair of 3-pointers. Her two steals also tied Peyton Blandin for a team-high and her five rebounds tied her with Maddie Thorfinnson for third on the team behind Swanson and Natalie Nielsen’s 7.

In a back-and-forth first quarter, Kylan Gerads converted an and-1 at the buzzer to give the Huskies a 12-11 lead. Yet, SMSU stayed within striking distance and a Swanson jumper in the final minute of the second quarter tied up the game at 23-23 at halftime.

From there, the Mustangs started the second half ready to roll. Stoltzman hit two layups, a 3-pointer and a free throw while Swanson connected on a midrange jumper to give SMSU 10 unanswered points to start the second half.

St. Cloud State eventually trimmed the Mustangs’ lead down to 3 points with a Briggs layup halfway through the quarter. Yet, that was as close as the Huskies got. Stoltzman and Swanson each responded with a pair of points as SMSU built its lead up to 46-41 to end the third and then continued to keep St. Cloud at bay in the fourth.

The score was 62-57 in favor of SMSU with three minutes to play. Yet, the Mustangs closed the game out on an 11-0 run to seal the victory. Brynn Busse started the run with a 3-pointer and four free throws from Swanson, two from Stoltzman and a Blandin jump shot sealed the game.

Blandin scored 12 points for SMSU. She was one of three Mustangs to score more than 3 points in the game, alongside Stoltzman and Swanson.

Now 18-2 overall and 12-2 in conference, the Mustangs will look to remain near the top of the NSIC when they next host Augustana (S.D.) on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. The Vikings are 4-16 overall and 2-12 in conference at the time of print. SMSU defeated Augustana 77-57 when the teams last met on Dec. 19, led by 19 points from Stoltzman and a 17-point, 11-rebound double-double from Swanson.