LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- No. 19 Midwestern State scored the first 11 points, then cruised to an 86-70 win over West Florida Saturday afternoon at the South Point Holiday Hoops Classic.
 
"This was probably one of our better games as a whole," MSU coach Nelson Haggerty said. "I thought we played 30 minutes of good basketball and maybe a little more of that. This was a pretty good performance by our guys today."
 
The win was the third straight for the Mustangs, who improved to 8-2 on the season while sending the Argonauts to their seven straight defeat to fall to 0-7.
 
Senior guard Monzaigo Williams, who led a group of five Mustangs scoring in double figures with 17 points, buried a 3-pointer to start the game then junior Derrell Gibbs canned consecutive treys before Cam Adderley finished the game starting run with a runner in the lane to give MSU an 11-point edge less than four minutes into the contest.
 
"They started out in a 1-3-1 and Derrell Gibbs broke it open (with a pair of 3s)," Haggerty said. "We forced them to go to a man defense and we were able to take advantage."
 
West Florida battled back to trim the lead to 37-32 on a Terrence Townes layup with 2:30 to go in the opening, but the Mustangs used a spurt from junior forward Xavier Blackburn at the start of the second to re-assert control of the contest.
 
The 6-4 junior from New Iberia, La. knocked down a 3-pointer then broke open for layup on the next possession to push the MSU advantage to 50-36 a little over a minute into the second half. The Mustangs maintained a double-figure lead the rest of the way.
 
Blackburn finished with a season-high 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting while hauling in five rebounds in 17 minutes.
 
Adderley tallied 11 of his 13 points in the first half and added six rebounds.
 
"Cam was aggressive getting to the basket," Haggerty said. "And he always rebounds the ball well for us."
 
Senior guard DeJuan Plummer pitched in 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting off of the bench, while senior forward Eddie D'Haiti finished with 11 points hitting on 7 of his 10 shots from the free throw line.
 
West Florida senior guard Nate Johnson led all scorers with 28 points with seven rebounds powered by a 15-of-17 effort from the charity stripe.
 
Midwestern State closes classic play Sunday afternoon against California State, San Bernardino. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. (Central Time) at South Point Arena.