STEPHENVILLE, Texas – Midwestern State's Brittni Morrison and Andrea Buben spearheaded a determined comeback effort Saturday night at Wisdom Gym.

The duo combined for seven 3-pointers as the Mustangs trimmed an 18-point second-half deficit to five points with 3:10 remaining.

But that wasn't enough to overcome the efforts of Tarleton State bombers Sonya Sundberg and D'Anna Dingler as the TexAnns came away with a 77-66 Lone Star Conference South Division win.

Sundberg beat the shot clock with a 26-foot trey to give Tarleton State a 69-60 lead with 3:10 to go before the Mustangs charged back to force another shot clock buzzer beater.

This one broke the Mustangs' back.

Dingler sprinted to towards her bench and, as the shot clock expired, threw a shot behind her head that found the bottom of the net to give TexAnns a 72-63 lead with 1:44 to play.

"It really stings to see a shot like that," MSU coach Shannon Burks said. "To play great defense for 29.5 seconds and see a lucky shot like that hurts. I've never questioned the effort of the girls."

The Mustangs shook off a sluggish shooting half as MSU hit just 1-of-11 3-point shots in the opening half and shot 35.5-perecent from the floor.

The TexAnns scored the first four points of the second half and led 45-27 when Krystal Cole hit a baseline jumper with 16:36 to go.

That's when the Mustangs responded as Buben keyed a 10-2 run with her first two treys of the game.

"Everything starts looking good when you're making shots," Burks said. "We started to hit them and made a run."

Buben hit three of her five 3-point attempts in the second half to finish with a team-high 15 points, but would combine with Morrison for 25 second-half points.

Morrison went 4-for-4 from the arc in the second half and scored all of her 12 points after intermission.

But the effort wasn't enough to overcome Sundberg's 3-point exhibition as the freshman guard hit five 3-pointers to finish with a game-high 21.

Tarleton State, which came into the contest shooting 28.3 percent from the arc with 3.8 makes a game, hit 7-of-17 as a team from 3-point range.

Tarleton State junior forward Krystal Cole matched Sundberg for game-high honors with 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while JoAnne Jones had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the TexAnns.

MSU's Rosy Ofoegbu and Tiffany Cook had 12 points each for the Mustangs.

Midwestern State, which fell 9-12 on the season and 3-5 in the Lone Star Conference South Division, plays host to West Texas A&M Wednesday night at D.L. Ligon Coliseum.

Tarleton State, which has now won the last six games of the series, improved to 15-6 and 6-1.