The M State Men’s basketball team started to come out of their shooting slump on Saturday in Austin as they made 46% (25-54) of their overall field goal attempts and 44% (14-32) of their 3’s, however, the Spartans were unable to overcome an 18 point halftime deficit as they fell to Riverland, 92-74. The two teams each scored 43 second half points.
Brett Engelmeyer came off the bench to produce a 20 point performance to lead M State, making 6-of-10 3’s on the day. Nic Pearson had 16 points, Mert Taylor contributed 13 and Larrie Bell added 12 points and a team high 6 rebounds. Renell Edwards and Langstron Davis were the assist leaders with 5 and 4, respectively.
Riverland shot 51% (35-69) from the field, 35% (9-26) on 3’s and 87% (13-15) on free throws. Lajarrion Spinks led the Blue Devils with 20 points, Cleveland Bedgood had 15 and Malik Cooper also had 15. Dominik Bangu and Jamari Magee each distributed 4 assists and Magee had a team high 4 steals.
M State (7-15) has a home game against Minnesota West at 7:30pm Wednesday and will close out the home portion of their schedule with a 3:00pm contest next Saturday against Rochester.