AUSTIN, Texas — St. Edward's shook off Friday's loss with a statement win punctuated by SAM MCKINNEY's exclamation mark dunk with four minutes remaining in the No. 13-ranked Hilltoppers' 90-68 win over Midwestern State.
 
MASON COURTNEY scored a season-high 18 points to go with his steady defense, chipping in eight rebounds and two blocks, and CONOR MCMANUS added 13 points, six rebounds, and two steals. St. Edward's starting wings finally broke through with simultaneous shooting games, combining to hit 7-for-15 from deep, turbocharging St. Edward's offense in a game the Hilltoppers led from start to finish.
 
St. Edward's made it look easy through the first four minutes, opening with a concerted effort to move ball and bodies. BLAKE NIELSEN found McManus for a layup and RYDER BRADLEY for a pair of 3-pointers, racking up three assists for eight points and adding his own floater to give St. Edward's a 16-7 lead five minutes in.
 
Midwestern State cut into the lead with an 8-2 run, sparked by Orlando Horton Jr.'s stepback 3-pointer and capped by Davyon Butler's alley-oop dunk through contact in transition for a three-point play.
 
The Hilltoppers disrupted Midwestern State's momentum by turning to its thunder and lightning duo of McKinney and ROBERT CONRAD off the bench. The pair provided instant energy, with McKinney trying to answer Butler's dunk with one of his own, drawing a hard foul in mid-air off a feed from Conrad and hitting 1-of-2.
 
Conrad followed with a defensive rebound and coast-to-coast layup, then buried a 3-pointer on a fast break started by McManus's steal on a feed from Nielsen. He capped that off with another layup off a feed from Bradley for the 26-15 lead.
 
The reserve guard led St. Edward's with 11 points on 5-for-6 shooting with a steal and several other deflections in nine first-half minutes. Courtney added 10 points, four rebounds, and two assists, and Bradley scored eight, giving St. Edward's an insurmountable 47-30 lead at the break.
 
St. Edward's continued to move the ball in the second half, assisting on 10 of its 14 made field goals, finding Courtney and McManus for eight points each, and Nielsen for seven in the second half.
 
The contrast between the two teams was apparent in the way they moved. St. Edward's was a free-flowing Jazz orchestra, blending scripted actions and improvisational beats into a crescendo of points.
 
Forward JAMISON KAY (12 points, seven rebounds, three blocks, three assists) leaned further into his ball-handling and playmaking, giving the Hilltoppers another point from which to break the defense down. Nielsen (11 points on 4-for-7 shooting, four assists, three rebounds) kept the offense moving, pausing it only occasionally to get to one of his floaters and flip shots. And Bradley added 10 points, three assists, and solid point-of-attack defense.
 
On the other end, Midwestern State's offense devolved into a number of record skips — pauses in the offense where everything comes to a crashing halt. The Mustangs moved the ball, they moved bodies, but the Hilltoppers applied enough pressure to force Midwestern State to reset its offense deep into the shot clock.
 
St. Edward's limited the Mustangs to 13-for-35 (37.1 percent) shooting, and outscored Midwestern State 42-34 in the paint and 36-11 in fast-break points despite only a 15-13 edge in points off turnovers.
 
Conrad finished with 13 points on 6-for-7 shooting with a pair of steals, and McKinney punctuated the afternoon with an emphatic dunk over a Mustang in transition.
 
St. Edward's improves to 14-2 with a 3-2 conference record. The Hilltoppers will travel next week to play nationally ranked West Texas A&M and Eastern New Mexico.