MARSHALL, MINN – After the NCAA Division II's Southwest Minnesota State Mustangs got off to a hot start, the Mayville State University Comets men's basketball team battled back. The two teams met Thursday night in the first of back-to-back road exhibition games for the Comets. Southwest Minnesota State, however, held on to win 73-61 in a battle on the hardwood in Marshall, Minn.
 
"I loved our fight and execution today," Comets head coach Darren Tighe said.
 
Nick Dufault's three-pointer with 11:46 to go in the first half gave the Mustangs their first substantial lead, 21-7, but Max Cooper broke the drought with a basket in the paint. But then, the Mustangs regained control and extended the lead to 30-13 with eight minutes to go in the first half, before Mayville State got into another groove.
 
A jumper by Latrelle Franklin cut the Mustangs lead in half. Then, 14 seconds later, Jalen Valverde went on a fastbreak and drained a three-pointer on a pass from Franklin. Southwest Minnesota State then went to the other end, missed a jumper and Mayville State's Rene Melendez picked up the defensive rebound, passed it to Max Cooper, who found Valverde wide open for a successful three-pointer, cutting Southwest Minnesota State's lead to single digits, 30-21, with just over seven minutes left in the first half.
 
Simon Ramirez, with 4:25 to go, hit another three, to cut the lead to 36-26, which was the last Comet bucket until the final 30 seconds of the first half.
 
With 31 seconds to go in the half, Valverde stole the ball, drove coast to coast and scored on a layup, cutting the lead to 17, 45-28. It looked as if that would be the halftime score, but a Kaden Evans missed layup turned into an offensive rebound for the Mustangs, and Dufault was able to get a bucket in the paint with one second left, giving Southwest Minnesota State a 47-28 lead at halftime.
 
Tighe and the Comets made a couple of adjustments at halftime—and the opening 10 minutes of the second half showed it.
 
The Comets held the Mustangs to nine points in the first 10 minutes of the second half, while the Comets scored 15 points offensively in the same time period.
 
"Holding them to nine points in the first ten minutes of the second half showed they took the adjustments to heart and executed," Tighe said. "We are getting better!"
 
After three points by Grant Kramer in the first 35 seconds, Mayville State stepped up their intensity offensively.
 
Iker Cruz got the offense rolling with a three-pointer off a fast break with 18:06 to go in the game. A Mustangs basket would then be equalized by Valverde, who took the basketball coast-to-coast, cutting the Mustangs lead to 52-33.
 
After Southwest Minnesota State jumped out to a 56-35 lead with 12:34 left, the Comets went on a run.
 
It all started with Malachi Wharry's three-pointer with 11:57 to go. From there, the Comets would end up on an 8-0 run. In addition to Wharry's three, Melendez added another just 45 seconds later.
 
Marin Lisica was then fouled with 10:37 left by Kramer, and the junior from Split, Croatia, sunk both free throws, cutting the lead to 56-43.
 
Evans stopped the Comet run with a jumper in the paint with just under 10 minutes to go. The bucket was part of a 7-0 run, including five points by Evans himself.
 
Eventually, Southwest Minnesota State built a 22-point lead, which was cut to 18 on back-to-back buckets, one by Max Cooper with 7:06 to go, and the other by Tobyn Lawson with 6:26 to go.
 
Late in the contest, the Comets again went on a run of 8-0. Ramirez hit his second three of the night, pulling the lead to 17. Xavier Towne's two free throws, with 3:07 left, cut the lead to 15. Freshman Christian Kuntz ended the run with a three of his own, making it a 12-point spread with 2:43 to go in the contest.
 
Dufault ended the Comets run with a jumper with just 2:14 left.
 
Great defense by the Comets held the Mustangs scoreless the rest of the way, with Mayville State's Towne picking up a couple of successful free throws with 33 seconds left.
 
Three Comets were in double figures in the scoring column, with Valverde leading the way with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting, including 3-of-4 from the three-point line. Max Cooper and Simon Ramirez each had ten points for the Comets.
 
With Thursday's game being an exhibition game, Mayville State's record remains 5-2.
 
The Comets will travel to Moorhead, Minn., for a Friday night matchup against the Minnesota State University-Moorhead Dragons. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Nemzek Hall in Moorhead, Minn.
 
Chris Larson will have the call of Friday night's matchup between the Comets and Dragons on Comet Radio, beginning with the pregame show at 6:30 and the opening tip at 7 p.m. You can tune into Comet Radio by going to www.mayvillestate.edu/cometradio or by downloading the TuneIn app on Google Play or Apple's App Store. For those with a Windows device, the TuneIn app is available by clicking this link.