ABILENE, Texas - Freshman Alicia Houston keyed a late surge for Midwestern State Saturday afternoon at Moody Coliseum.

The point guard dropped in a career-high 14 points and pulled in four rebounds, but it wasn't enough to overcome Abilene Christian as the Wildcats held on for a 73-66 Lone Star Conference South Division win.

The Mustangs suffered their fifth-straight loss to fall to 6-12 on the season and to 0-5 in the LSC South, while ACU snapped a two-game skid to improve to 13-7 and 3-2.

MSU used a 14-2 surge early in the first half as Cierra Thompson collected a pair of buckets in the paint before Michelle Duff went coast-to-coast on a driving layup before feeding Andrea Buben for a 10-foot jumper to give the Mustangs a 12-9 lead with 14:22 to go int he first half.

ACU's Jody Meyer answered with a score in the paint before Aqueelah Watkins hit two of the next three shots to give Midwestern its biggest lead of the contest at 18-11 with 12:35 to go in the opening half.

But the Wildcats connected on 17-of-19 free throws before halftime to whittle away and took the lead for good on a Kat Kundmueller free throw with 2.7 seconds to go in the first half.

Abilene Christian took command in the second half and built a 66-54 lead when Courtney Laing hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 4:38 to play.

But the Mustangs responded as Houston found her way to the charity strip to hit one of two shots before Thompson canned the team's lone trey of the game and Jazman Patterson hit a follow layup to pull MSU within 66-60 with 2:09 to play, but that's as close as it would get.

Houston hit 4-of-9 shot from the field and was 6-of-8 from the charity stripe to complete her career game, while Thompson finished with 15 points and two rebounds.

Patterson had 13 points and eight rebounds while making her second consecutive start.

Jamie Meyer led a quartet of Wildcats in double figures with a game-high 20 points, while twin sister Jody Meyer completed a double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds.

Kelsey Darby-Holson joined Laing with 10 points each.

Midwestern State hits the road to face Tarleton State Wednesday night in Stephenville. Tipoff at Wisdom Gym is set for 6 p.m.