TYLER, Texas -- UT Tyler buried two 3-pointers in the final minute and overcame a nine-point deficit with 3 1/2 minutes to play to steal a 69-68 win over Midwestern State Sunday afternoon at the Louise Herrington Patriot Center.

The Patriots, who improved to 9-1 on the season and 1-0 in Lone Star Conference play, outscored MSU 14-4 over the final 3:33 to spoil career performance by Terrell Wilson, who poured in 28 points to lead the Mustangs.

"We certainly saw growth out there today. We were a tougher basketball team," MSU coach Justin Leslie said. "We competed hard tonight. This is a really good team and we controlled the game for the majority of it. We have not played that well consistently this year. We went out there and did it for 38 minutes and it was in those last two that we didn't finish it and let ourselves down."

Wilson, who connected on 10-of-16 shots from the field and buried each of his six 3-point attempts, appeared to give the Mustangs enough breathing room to snap a three-game slide when he banged in a runner off of the glass for a 66-59 lead with 2:36 to play.

But UT Tyler junior Milan Szabo hit one of two free throws on the next possession before Micah Fuller drilled the first of two consecutive triples from the right wing to pull the Patriots back to within a possession.

The Mustangs battled back with an Amaechi Chukwu layup with 1:23 to play before Fuller hit his second 3-pointer to pull UT Tyler to within 68-66.

UTT junior Paul Djoko followed by knocking down an open triple -- again from the right wing -- to give the Patriots their first and only lead of the second half.

"All we were saying was defend the 3-point line. It's a four-possession game that way. We've been saying since day one, 'hand down, man down,'" Leslie said. "Their leading 3-point shooter Micah Fuller gets two open 3s at the end. Their last 3 that Djoko hit was just a dare shot. Jalin (Brown) didn't guard him with his hands up, dared him to make it and he did. If we defend that 3 and he drives, what's the worst case scenario? They send it to overtime or get the ball with 17 seconds left and get the opportunity to draw up the last play to shoot the last shot to either win or send it to overtime. To give him the opportunity to shoot the 3 was absolutely uncalled for in that situation."

Midwestern State had three contested looks from point-blank range in the closing seconds, but get the ball to fall through the hoop.

"It looked like Jalin was hit on his put back at the end. We put ourselves in that position by allowing them to get the three 3s up," Leslie said. "We played a really good 38 minutes. We just completely lost track of solid at the end."

Wilson bettered his previous career high of 23 points set twice last season against St. Edward's and DBU. His six made 3-pointers were also a career high and the most by any MSU player this season.

"We had a hard talk this morning about understanding what he has to do defensively. He had been putting us in some difficult situations with his gambling and he took it to heart," Leslie said. "He played fantastic on the defensive side tonight. I think that got him in the right frame of mind to where when the shots presented themselves, he was prepared to knock them down."

Defensively, the Mustangs limited UT Tyler to a season low 69 points.

Midwestern State (4-9, 0-2) enjoyed its team performance in the last 10 games as the Mustangs shot 46.4 from the floor and were 10-of-19 from the arc (52.6 percent).

Chukwu and Brown scored eight points each for the Mustangs, while Jermane Carter and Pierre Sanders had seven points apiece.

Senior Zaire Mateen scored 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting including four 3-pointers to lead UT Tyler, while Fuller and Da'Zhon Wyche scored 10 points each.

Midwestern State takes on St. Edward's Thursday night at D.L. Ligon Coliseum. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.