Sean Arbaut/Minot State athletics Minot State's Luis Ricci Maia (11) converts a layup during a men's college basketball game Saturday at the MSU Dome.

The power went out for a 10-minute stretch at the Minot State Dome, but that didn’t stop the MSU men’s basketball team from supplying their own electricity beyond the arc.

Minot State shot 10-of-17 from 3-point range and 56.3 percent from the floor en route to blasting the University of Mary 91-61 in its Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference opener. The win ensured a 7-0 start for the first time in at least 42 years.

The strangest moment came 7 minutes into the game. At the 12:59 mark with the Beavers leading 16-10, both of the MSU Dome scoreboards lost power without warning, leaving officials with an unorthodox dilemma. After a few minutes of discussion at the scorer’s table, it was decided the game clock and shot clock alike would be kept with stopwatches — well, more like I-Phones, but you get the idea.

“It was an intense gym with a lot of energy after that big victory our women had. We come out of the gates hot and all of a sudden the power goes out,” MSU coach Matt Murken said. “We had a little delay but to the officials’ credit, they put a game plan together pretty quick and figured out a way to keep the game going because it was a strange situation. Obviously, nobody wants that, whether it’s players, coaches or fans.”

The next 6 and a half minutes had a rec-league pickup game feel to it. Employees at the scorer’s table would shout when there was 10 seconds left on the shot clock, one fan gave his entire section score updates during timeouts by following the live stats on his phone and the shot clock buzzer went off in random spurts as MSU officials frantically tried to restore power.

“We were just playing and nobody knew what the score was,” Murken said. “We just told our guys ‘Hey, this is just like when you’re a kid and you’re just playing hoops because you love it.’ We don’t really worry what the score is anyway on a certain possession, you’re just supposed to do your job. I thought our guys handled that really well.”

When the scoreboard was finally resurrected, MSU had a 23-16 lead.

“It was a little weird, but we knew we had to group together and not lose any focus,” MSU senior forward Tyler Rudolph said. “It was early in the game, everyone is just hyped and ready to play, then we had a long break like that. But I think we were able to regroup and keep our flow going long after that.”

The Beavers took a 42-26 lead into halftime. Despite the 16-point lead, UMary started the second half on a 18-6 run to cut the deficit to four with 14:08 remaining.

“We knew they’d come out and have to gamble more, try to get out in transition and hit some threes to beat us,” Rudolph said. “They came out and did that, but we knew how to rally and rally around each other. We really dug in defensively and got stops when we needed it.”

MSU (7-0, 1-0 NSIC) ran the Marauders (1-3, 0-1) out of the gym and back to Bismarck in the final 14 minutes, outscoring UMary 43-17.

“We really started guarding again,” Murken said. “Even at the end of the game, our guys were in the huddle because they really wanted to hold them in the 50s. Our team has really bought into the defensive mindset and decided to make it a fight on the court on that end of the possession.”

Rudolph led the Beavers with 28 points and 14 rebounds for his 28th career double-double. It was his fourth against UMary, the most he’s had against any opponent in his college career.

Senior guard Russ Davis chipped in 15 points on a 5 of 8 shooting effort and senior point guard Luis Ricci Maia recorded 14 points and five assists. The Beavers outrebounded UMary 39-24 and held the Marauders to 38.9 percent from the floor.

“If we keep playing defense the way we have been, it’s going to be an awesome season for us,” Ricci Maia said.

MSU is back in action against NSIC preseason favorite Northern State at 8 p.m. Friday at the MSU Dome.

Garrick Hodge covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @Garrick_Hodge.