WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- Midwestern State gave No. 7 West Texas A&M all it could handle in coach Justin Leslie's home debut Thursday night at D.L. Ligon Coliseum.
 
The Buffaloes did come away with a 75-64 win to improve to 5-0 on the season, but the Mustangs gave the 1,287 in attendance plenty of optimism.
 
Midwestern held WT 28 points below its season average of 103 points, while forcing the Buffs into 5-of-20 shooting from beyond the arc. WT came into the game firing in 10.3 triples per game.
 
The Mustangs, who shot 45.6 percent from the field and were 8-of-21 from the 3-point line, held a pair of brief leads early in the first half leading by as many two points after freshman Evan McCarthy buried two of his team-high three 3-treys to give MSU an 11-9 lead with 12:42 to go in the first half.
 
West Texas A&M battled to back to lead by as 12 points in the half before taking a 32-24 advantage into halftime.
 
The Mustangs broke out of the locker room on a 7-2 run to pull to within three points after Reggie Rivera followed a D'monta Harris 3-pointer with a jumper to pull to within 34-31 of the Buffs.
 
That's as close as Midwestern State would get as sophomore guard Qua Grant poured in a team-high 22 points while going 6-of-8 from the free throw line for West Texas A&M to keep the Mustangs at arm's length.
 
Fellow sophomore Joel Murray added 17 points and nine rebounds while going a perfect 8-of-8 from the charity stripe, while Derrick Geddis and Zach Toussaint added nine points each.
 
Harris paced the Mustangs with 15 points and eight rebounds, while senior guard Darius Thompson dropped in 12 of his 14 points in the second half.
 
McCarthy, a freshman from Mansfield, connected on 5-of-8 from the field with three 3-pointers to net 14 points of his own.
 
Midwestern State takes on Texas Wesleyan Saturday night at D.L. Ligon Coliseum. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. or 25 minutes after the conclusion of the women's game which begins at 5.