STEPHENVILLE, Texas - Midwestern State has made it a habit of almost digging itself out of deep holes on the road this season.

Saturday night was no different as Tarleton State built up a big first-half lead before staving off the Mustangs 75-63 in a Lone Star Conference South Division contest at Wisdom Gym.

"We can't afford to dig ourselves a hole like that and expect to win," MSU coach Noel Johnson said. "We've done that all year. We just need to step up the energy level from the beginning."

The Mustangs, who fell to 7-14 on the season and 2-5 in the LSC South, are now 1-10 away from the comfortable confines of D.L. Ligon Coliseum.

The hotshooting TexAnns, who fired in seven first-half 3-pointers, used a 9-2 run in a four-minute span to push their advantage to 22-1 when Shelby Adamson hit a layup with 9:44 to go before intermission.

Tarleton State carried a 44-31 lead into halftime, but the Mustangs used a decided advantage on the block to run off the first nine points of the second half.

Rosy Ofoegbu and Regiane Araujo scored each point in the run as the Mustangs pushed to within 44-40 just over three minutes into the stanza.

"We felt like we had an advantage on the post with our size and athleticsm," Johnson said. "Rosy did a great job for us in the second half."

Ofoegbu scored each of her 14 points in the second stanza when she was 5-of-6 from the field and 4-of-5 from the free throw line.

The Mustangs were able to cut the lead to three points on two occasions, but the TexAnns had the answer on each occasion.

Freshman Cierra Thompson cut the lead to 48-45 when she completed a three-point play with 14:23 before Tarleton ran off the next five points.

The Mustangs got back within a possession when Araujo converted a nice feed from Ofoegbu into a layup to pull MSU within 55-52 with 6:38 to go.

But D'Anna Dingler canned the TexAnns lone 3-pointer of the second half to key another five-point Tarleton run. The Mustangs would get no closer than five the rest of the night.

Araujo paced the Mustangs with 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting, while Ofoegbu and Thompson added 14 points each.

JoAnne Jones led Tarleton State with 21 points, while Adamson had 16 and Dingler pitched in 13.

Midwestern State plays host to West Texas A&M Wednesday night at D.L. Ligon Coliseum. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.

Tarleton State improved to 12-10 on the season and 3-4 in LSC South Division play.