WICHITA FALLS, Texas  -- The Midwestern State Mustangs didn't get down when they fell behind 17-0 early in the second quarter Saturday at windy Memorial Stadium -- even though it was an NCAA playoff game.
The No. 5 Mustangs simply continued the play that got them the No. 3 seed in Super Region Four.

MSU cut the deficit to three at the half on the way to 24 unanswered points and held on for a 24-20 win over the No. 18 Sioux Falls Cougars in front of 7,502 fans to advance to the second round of the NCAA playoffs.

The Mustangs (10-0) will travel to Mankato, Minnesota, next Saturday to face top-ranked Minnesota State in a noon game at Blakeslee Field. The Mavericks, who are the No. 2 team in the region, beat Colorado State-Pueblo 16-13 in overtime.

"It felt like it took the offense and the defense a few drives to get used to them," said junior quarterback Layton Rabb, who completed 23 of 40 passes for 239 yards and two scores. "The game's all about momentum and we took advantage of that when we got it."

The Cougars (9-3) scored on their opening drive with most of it on the ground as they were going into a 28 mph wind. Running back Max Mickey, who had been out with an injury for the past six weeks, got the score on a 20-yard run.

USF made it 10-0 early in the second quarter on a 30-yard Stuart Vanden Heuvel feld goal.

It went to 17-0 after an MSU gamble failed -- they went for it on fourth-and-four from their own 31 -- with Michael Maxwell catching a 16-yard pass from Ian Fieber with 9:17 left in the half.

"When we got down 17 we decided we can't be down, we knew we had to stay positive," said safety Sir'Vell Ford, who led the Mustangs with 20 tackles. We (defense) had their backs (offense) and we knew they had ours."

Rabb completed six straight passes on the next MSU drive, finishing it up with a 5-yarder into the end zone to Xavier Land. But the PAT was no good as the wind blew the ball back toward the line of scrimmage.

It appeared the Mustangs would get the ball right back as Jaron Imbriani's kickoff was held up by the wind and caught by an MSU player after going the necessary 10 yards. But the officials ruled the Mustangs didn't allow the Cougars a chance to catch the ball and made them kickoff again after a 15-yard walkoff.

The Cougars couldn't take advantage of the short field as the MSU defense held and the offense took over at their own 11 with 1:54 left.

Rabb completed six passes in this drive -- but he also had one incomplete. But he finished it the same way as their last drive, a 45-yard catch and run by Tyrique Edwards for the score. MSU went for two and got it with Brandon Sampson making the catch.

A fumble kept the Mustangs out of the end zone on their first possession of the second half, but they finally went on top the next time they had the ball on. A 3-yard run by Adrian Seales put the Mustangs up 21-17.

A bad snap over the head of USF's Fieber was recovered by Steven Rogers at the 9, but the Mustangs weren't able to to anything with it and had to settle for a 24-yard field goal from Imbriani.

The defense came up with a turnover early in the fourth as J.P. Cognasi recovered a fumble deep in MSU territory to stop one USF drive. But after another short punt, the Cougars' got a 35-yard field goal to cut the lead to 24-20 with 6:04 remaining,

MSU came up with one more big defensive stop, turning the Cougars away on a fourth-and-eight at the 15 with 2:40 left.

Seales picked up one first down with a 5-yard run on a third-and-two and Rabb picked up another with a 12-yard keeper on a third-and-nine play to ice the game.

"We knew it was going to be a battle. They're a good football team," MSU head coach Bill Maskill said. "We knew the wind was going to be a factor today and it was. We just tried to zone it out and play to the best of our ability."

"The key for us is we scored those 14 points before the half, including the two-point conversion, and the defense rose up in the second half and only allowed them three points."

The win was 11 years to the day since MSU's last win in the playoffs, a 28-26 comeback win over Western Missouri in 2006.

The teams were almost even on offense as MSU finished with 357 and the Cougars had 354.

Seales finished with 70 yards, while Vincent Johnson had 43. USF's Jason Towns led all rushers with 96.

Edwards caught seven passes for 104 yards, Land had seven for 36 yards and D.J. Myers had five catches for 59 yards.

Jacob Sherrill finished with eight tackles, Rogers had seven, with two of them for loss, and Jaydon Cunigan and Josh Wydermyer both had six.