CANYON, Texas - No. 6 Midwestern State went ice cold from the field over the final 8 minutes of the first half Wednesday night at First United Bank Center.

The drought cost the Mustangs its seven-game winning streak and most likely its freshly earned top ranking in the South Central Region as West Texas A&M took a 68-58 Lone Star Conference South Division win.

"We missed some easy shots early and really took it to us on the offensive glass," MSU coach Grant McCasland said. "They out-toughed us in the first half."

Midwestern, who fell to 21-2 on the season and to 6-2 in divisional play, were outboarded by the Buffs 35-25.

The Mustangs completed a 9-0 run on a Jason Ebie layup to take a 15-11 lead with 8 minutes remaining in the first half and appeared to be gaining momentum.

But West Texas A&M would take control of the game by outscoring MSU 20-2 the rest of the way to take a 31-17 lead when Nick Burns canned his second trey of the half just before the buzzer.

The Buffs hit four treys in the opening half as Chris Tucker would add two of his own to join Burns with a game-high of 15 points before fouling out in 27 minutes.

The Mustangs battled back throughout the second half, finally clawing within 58-48 on a pair of Craig Green free throws iwth 3:30 to go.

"We dug ourselves too deep of a hole in the first half and couldn't get out of it," McCasland said.

Chris Hagan canned a 3-pointer on the next possession to pull MSU with 58-51, but the Buffs connected on 10-of-14 free throws over the final 2:12 of the game to seal the victory after the Mustangs were able to move to within 64-58 with 50.9 seconds to play.

"We just didn't do a good job of handling adversity for a stretch," McCasland said. "West Texas did a good job of putting it on us taking it to us. We knew it would be a tough place to play."

That was as close as it would get as West Texas A&M won its second-straight game and improved to 9-1 on its home floor to move to 13-10 and 4-4.

Senior forward Anthony Moore paced MSU with 12 points and finished with five rebounds, while Hagan added 10 points.

The Mustangs return to D.L. Ligon Coliseum to play host to Eastern New Mexico Saturday night at D.L. Ligon Coliseum. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. or 25 minutes after the conclusion of the women's game which begins at 6.