WINONA, Minn. – Riley Bambenek hit a career-high six 3-pointers to lead the Winona State men's basketball team to an 86-75 victory over Southwest Minnesota State Friday night in front of 1,418 fans in McCown Gym.

With the win, head coach Todd Eisner earned his first NSIC victory and WSU brought its home win streak against SMSU to 15 games dating back to February 14, 2003 and have won 24 of the past 28 meetings overall.

As a team, the Warriors hit a season-high 14 3-pointers, the most since drilling 15 against Concordia-St. Paul on December 12, 2014. WSU needed just 25 attempts to do it, shooting the 3-pointer at a 56 percent clip. SMSU, meanwhile, hit just six of 24 from long range.

Bambenek was instrumental in getting the Warriors out to a hot start, scoring 15 of his game-high 20 points in the first half. An opening jumper for SMSU was the only lead the Mustangs would have in the game, as the first of Bambenek's triples capped off an early 8-point run to lead 8-2 five minutes into the game. A 3-pointer from Mark Blacklock followed by a jumper from Conrad Masberg pushed the lead to 13-6, but the Mustangs answered with back-to-back 3s to cut it to 13-12.

The Warriors had an answer again, with its second 8-0 run fueled by a second Bambenek 3-pointer and one from Kyle Bauman to push the lead to 21-12 with under 10 minutes to play. A minute later Bambenek hit his third 3-ball to give WSU its first double-digit lead. With SMSU trying its best to keep the lead back in single digits, Bambenek fired off his fourth and fifth 3-pointers in a 23 second span with under a minute to play in the half to get the lead back to 12 on each occasion and WSU went into the locker room enjoying a 40-28 halftime advantage.

WSU used its third 8-0 run of the game early in the second half when Josh Mongan found Blacklock and Bauman for back-to-back 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to stake the team to an 18-point, 53-35 lead with more than 15 minutes to play.

The lead hovered comfortably between 14 and 19 points until the eight minute mark when the Mustangs mounted an 8-0 run of their own to cut the lead to 11 at 65-54 with 6:24 still to play. After a Bauman layup, another 5-0 run got SMSU back to single digits, trailing by just eight. A common trend, Bambenek's final 3-pointer of the night put WSU back up 12 yet again with 3:50 to play and SMSU was unable to get the lead cut to under seven throughout a lengthy final three minutes where WSU made nine of 13 free throws to seal the deal and earn the much-needed victory.

Bambenek finished the night 7-of-12 from the field while hitting 6-of-10 3-pointers. Kyle Bauman added 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting – and was a perfect 3-of-3 from 3-point range – along with five rebounds.

Blacklock pitched in 12 points and four rebounds, while Mongan reached 11 points for the second straight game and dished out six assists.

Winona State (2-4, 1-1 NSIC) returns to action Saturday when it hosts Sioux Falls at 6 p.m. in McCown Gym.