Midwestern St. MSUT 8-1,2-1 Lone Star

St. Mary's (TX) SMU-TX 4-3,1-2 Lone Star

Midwestern St. MSUT

8-1,2-1 Lone Star

Final

Dec. 06, 2023

St. Mary's (TX) SMU-TX

4-3,1-2 Lone Star

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
Midwestern St. MSUT	35	48	83
St. Mary's (TX) SMU-TX	35	41	76

Summary
Box Score

Dwain Linden

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | 12/6/2023 10:15:00 PM | Trey Reed / MSU Athletic Communications

MSU shakes off sluggish start to silence Rattlers

THE LEAD >>>

SAN ANTONIO -- Midwestern State overcame a sluggish start to roll to an 83-76 win over St. Mary's in Lone Star Conference play Wednesday night at Bill Greehey Arena.

HOW IT HAPPENED >>>

St. Mary's blitzed Midwestern State with a 20-8 opening salvo over the first six minutes of the game, but then the Mustangs righted the ship.

The Hilltoppers wouldn't score 20 more points until Seny N'Diaye converted a free throw nearly three minutes into the second half.

By that time, the Mustangs had spun the eight-point deficit into a 45-39 lead.

But it didn't take nearly that long for MSU to take momentum. The Mustangs used an 11-2 run to pull within 22-19 on a pair of Mason Gibson free throws with 8:29 to go in the opening half before drawing even at halftime.

St. Mary's was able to take a one-point lead on two occasions in the second half, but the Mustangs never relinquished control of the game.

LEADERS >>>

- Midwestern State's Will Shepherd followed his career-high, 20-point effort with his fifth double-figure scoring effort in his last six games. The junior from Dallas connected on 7-of-13 shots from the field including a pair of 3-pointers to finish with a game-high 18 points and eight rebounds.
- Senior Pierre Sanders logged his seventh double-figure scoring game of the season with an all-around line of 16 points, eight assists, and four rebounds. Sanders improved his LSC leading assist average to 6.1 per game.
- Sophomore Mason Gibson netted in double figures for the fourth consecutive game, finishing with 12 points. He leads the Mustangs in scoring at 14.2 points per game.
- Junior guard Bakari LaStrap went 4-of-6 from the field and 4-of-6 from the charity stripe to log 12 points before fouling out in 27 minutes.
- Junior forward Austin Lewis came off of the bench to score double-figure points for the fifth time this season. He went 4-of-7 from the field and splashed in three 3-pointers to log 11 points while pulling down a campaign-high eight rebounds.
- Sophomore Duncan Alevok swatted four more shots to up his LSC leading total to 26 blocked shots this season. The Florida native has blocked at least three shots in five games this season.
- St. Mary's senior Keith Dinwiddie paced the Rattlers 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting with two 3-pointers, but was limited to 23 minutes with foul trouble.
- St. Mary's senior Lachlan Bofinger logged his fourth double-double of the season with 14 points and 14 rebounds.

GAME NOTES >>>

- Midwestern State held St. Mary's to a season low scoring output of 76 points. The Rattlers scored the same number of points in a 76-63 win at Western New Mexico on November 30.
- Midwestern State has scored at least 80 points in eight of nine games this season. The Mustangs have won all eight of those games.
- Midwestern State recorded six more blocked shots including four by Duncan Alevok and one each by Mason Gibson and Austin Lewis to up their LSC leading team season total to 48 blocks.
- Midwestern State claimed a season sweep and its third consecutive win over St. Mary's to level the all-time series at 19-19. It was the Mustangs' first win over the Rattlers in San Antonio since All-American Chris Hagan buried four 3-pointers to lead MSU to an 89-71 win on November 28, 2009. MSU improved to 5-0 on the way to making its first of three straight trips the NCAA Division II Elite Eight under first-year coach Grant McCasland.
- Midwestern State improved to 8-1 for the first time since the 2015-16 season.
- St. Mary's suffered its first loss at Bill Greehey Arena this season, while falling to 4-3.