ABILENE, Texas - Abilene Christian's sticky defense was too much for Midwestern State to overcome Saturday afternoon at Kimbrell Arena.

The Wildcats limited ice cold MSU to 25 percent effort from the field to come away with a 61-46 Lone Star Conference South Division win to elminate the Mustangs from postseason consideration.

The Mustangs, who dropped to 8-16 on the season and 3-7 in division, close the season with a pair of games next week. Midwestern hits the road to face Angelo State on Wednesday before battling Texas A&M-Kingsville in the finale next Saturday at D.L. Ligon Coliseum.

MSU survived the physical challenge early on and matched the Wildcats stop for stop in the opening eight minutes of the game as each team traded rare baskets as the Mustangs knotted the game at 5-5 on an Andrea Buben 3-pointer with 12:30 remaining in the opening half.

But ACU converted a pair of Mustangs' turnovers into baskets and Jamie Meyer canned a 3-pointer as paort of a 9-0 run capped by Audrey Maxwell-Lively's layup with 9:43 to go before intermission to give the Wildcats a 14-5 lead.

Abilene Christian would never trail again.

The Mustangs hit just 4-of-22 shots (18.2 percent) in the first half which allowed Abilene Christian to build a 29-15 halftime lead.

It was more of the same in the second half as the Wildcats once peeled off nine-straight points again.

This time, Autumn Whitaker was the catalyst as the sophomore accounted for seven of the points which her lone 3-pointer of the contest followed by a pair of layups which gave ACU a commanding 50-26 lead with 6:47 to go.

The Wildcats would increase the lead to 25 before Midwestern mustered a late rally to pull within 57-44 when Rosy Ofoegbu converted a steal into a layup with 1:18 to play, but it was too little too late.

Buben paced MSU with 10 points on 3-of-7 shooting inlcuing a pair of 3-pointers, while Ofoegbu finished with nine points and seven rebounds. Regiana Araujo also contributed a solid performance with eight points and nine rebounds.

Abilene Christian, which clinched a berth in the Lone Star Conference Postseason Tournament, was paced by Jody Meyer, who finished with 12 points and five boards. Jamie Meyer joined Whitaker with 11 points.

The Wildcats improved to 16-9 and 7-3.