Chances are that the Mavericks didn't highlight Bethany Lutheran as a big game while looking at the schedule earlier this month. They were likely gearing up for Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play against Southwest Minnesota State, which starts on Saturday.
Although the Minnesota State basketball team defeated the Vikings easily on Tuesday night, 110-65, they started slowly out of the gates trailing 12-2 to a lively Bethany Lutheran team to begin the game.
"I guess we were kind of riding high this weekend after Sioux Falls (the Mavericks went 2-0)," said junior guard Joe Drapcho who scored a career-high 13 points in the win. "We might have been looking towards conference play on Saturday. Either way, we didn't come to play and they did."
The Mavericks would eventually build to a 51-40 lead going into halftime, with 12 first half points from Marcus Hill (all 3-pointers) and 10 from Drapcho.
The second half, as it has been all year long, was strong for the Mavericks, holding the Vikings to just 25 points and 8-30 from the field.
Hill and forward Jefferson Mason led the Mavericks, both coming off of the bench, scoring 19 points. Senior center Travis Nelson added 18 points along with 10 rebounds, while both guard Jermain Davis and forward/center Mike Bisenius had 10 points.
The one player that wasn't named above was junior Cam Hodges who dislocated his right index finger last weekend and will be out for 4-5 weeks, which will give Drapcho along with guards such as Taylor Morrow and Stephen Kirschbaum more playing time.
"That's kind of the cool thing about our team," Drapcho said of the depth. "We have so many weapons and we have players ready to step in. There isn't much of a difference from our starting five to our second five."
The Mavericks, with the absence of Hodges, will need to utilize their bench more than ever going into NSIC play at 4 p.m. Saturday against Southwest at the Taylor Center.
The Mustangs are ranked No. 11 in the nation, while the Mavericks moved up to 22 after last weekend's victory over Winona State.
"It's huge to win that first NSIC game," Drapcho said. "First off, they won the conference last year and it's always important to win home games against tougher teams. Secondly, it's the first conference game. We want to set a tone."
The Mavericks won't get the nice break most students will receive this December as they play Mary at home on the eleventh, Northern State on the twelfth and Cardinal Stritch on the eighteenth.
MSU will then bring the show to the road, playing at Minnesota-Crookston, MSU-Moorhead, Upper Iowa and a tough Winona State team at the end of December and beginning of January.
By the time school starts up again, the Mavericks will have a good idea on where they measure up to the rest of the NSIC.
And Drapcho thinks that getting away from the school part is probably a good thing, for a little while at least.
"Once you get done with the finals and semester, we don't have anything to worry about besides basketball," Drapcho said. "During finals week things get really hectic and it's hard to juggle everything. During Christmas break we can just focus on basketball.
Kyle Ratke is the Reporter sports editor
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