THE RUNDOWN
WICHITA FALLS – Senior guard Jasmine Richardson approached a triple-double with 10 points, nine rebounds and six assists while junior forward Chelsea Adams tacked on nine in the second half as Midwestern State flexed past Texas A&M-Kingsville, 66-61.
 
The Mustangs improve to 11-8 on the season and 8-5 in Lone Star Conference play. MSU is now 6-0 in LSC action at the confines of D.L. Ligon Coliseum.
 
Senior guard Whitney Taylor drained a trio of three pointers in the first half while MSU had 10 assists on 12 makes in the opening 20 minutes. Richardson handed out four of her six helpers in the first half, adding six points and five rebounds.
 
It appeared as if the Mustangs would run away with it, closing out the third quarter on a 17-7 run that would have been worse had the Javelinas not knocked down a triple with five seconds left to cut the MSU lead to 10 at 51-41.
 
Texas A&M-Kingsville rallied with a 16-6 run over six and a half minutes to tie the game at 59 with 2:17 to play on a Victoria Salinas trey. A little under a minute later, Adams worked a foul under the basket and split the free throws to give the Mustangs the lead for good. Senior forward Micheline Mercelita hit a pair of jumpers on back-to-back possessions to stretch the lead to five and put the game on ice.
 
Adams made 6-of-8 from the charity stripe, including 5-for-6 in the second half to pace the Maroon and Gold. Richardson and Mercelita each finished with 10 points.
 
TAMUK's Angelica Wilson led the Javelinas with 18 points and nine rebounds, going 7-for-11 from the field.

NOTES
- Midwestern State won its sixth-straight home Lone Star Conference game, improving to 8-2 at D.L. Ligon Coliseum in 2017-18.
- The Mustangs shot 43.1 percent from the floor, marking the third-time in the last four games MSU has been better than 40 percent from the field.
- Although MSU opened the night going 6-for-16 from beyond the arc in the first half, MSU went 0-for-7 after the intermission to finish at 26.1 percent from distance.
- The Maroon and Gold forced 15 Javelina turnovers and converted those into 14 points. Conversely, Kingsville forced 13 miscues, but only notched seven points off turnovers.
- MSU's depth allowed the Mustangs to build a 26-12 edge off the bench.
- Junior forward Chelsea Adams finished with 12 points, marking the second-straight game the Dallas native has scored in double-figures and third time on the season. She went 6-of-8 from the free throw line, including 5-of-6 in the second half.
- Senior guard Jasmine Richardson came up just shy of her first double-double of the season, going for 10 points, nine rebounds and six assists. The nine boards matched a season-high while the six dimes gave the Corpus Christi native an even 50 on the season.
- Senior forward Micheline Mercelita went for 10 points and eight rebounds. It was the 10^th-time this season the Edinburg native scored in double-figures and sixth-time in the last seven games with at least eight rebounds.

UP NEXT
Midwestern State is back in action on Saturday, Feb. 3 against Angelo State at D.L. Ligon Coliseum. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m.