WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- The longer the season goes, the more stingy Midwestern State becomes.

The Mustangs rolled to its third straight win by taking the life out of the Western New Mexico attack in a 69-50 win Thursday night at D.L. Ligon Coliseum.

"It's always fun when you are on the right side of the scoreboard and the team is executing its identity. It's who we are," MSU coach Justin Leslie said. "If we want to be good, we have to guard. I still think at some point, we're going to have some good shooting games, but maybe that's the optimist in me. If we keep holding teams at sub-40 percent, we're going to be right there."

MSU stacked a brilliant defensive performance no matter the measure while extending it run of success to five wins in the last six games and to six in the last eight to move to 11-13 overall and to 7-5 in Lone Star Conference play.

The Mustangs held the opposition to less than a point per shot for the fourth time this season and for the second time in the last three games. 

During the winning streak, MSU has limited Eastern New Mexico, Dallas Baptist and Western New Mexico to a combined 160 points on 174 field goal attempts. It all adds up to 0.92 points per shot. That means comfortable wins as the Mustangs have posted margins of 22, 14 and 19.

"We have the ability to give a lot of looks on the defensive side of the ball," Leslie said. "It took a full commitment on our behalf wanting to out there and really take it to them. It's hard to sit in a stance with the proper angle with your hands up talking non-stop. We can't allow any slippage on the defensive side of the ball because that's who we are."

Leslie also adjusted the starting lineup with the addition of redshirt-freshman Amaechi Chukwu prior to MSU's win over DBU on Tuesday. That gives the Mustangs three forwards along with Jermane Carter and Jalin Brown. All three have thrived playing extended minutes together.

"Our most efficient shooters are our bigs. Jermane, Amaechi and Jalin are shooting a higher percentage from 3 than any of our shooters and guards we have on the team," Leslie said. "They defend. They rebound. They were already doing that. Now, if they are shooting the ball we can stretch the floor with them."

Carter led the Mustangs with 15 points and eight rebounds while connecting on a pair of 3-pointers. Brown also canned two triples on his way to a season-high 12 points.

Chukwu delivered another strong performance with nine points and seven rebounds.

Defensively, MSU frustrated Western New Mexico into 32.2 percent shooting with 17 turnovers and held the Mustangs to a season-low scoring output.

Joshuwan Johnson was a bright spot for WNMU hitting five 3-pointers for a team-high 17 points. Dylan Arnette added 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting with two 3-pointers.

Junior Terrell Wilson scored in double figures for the 17th time this season finishing with 11 points with two triples for Midwestern State. Senior Luke Hamilton also buried a pair of 3-pointers and grabbed a season-high eight rebounds.

Midwestern State looks to continue momentum Thursday night at Texas A&M-Kingsville. Tipoff at the Steinke Center is set for 7:30 p.m.
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