WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- Midwestern State faces another stout opponent from the Lone Star Conference West Division on Thursday night as No. 19-ranked Angelo State seeks its fourth consecutive win in the series. Tipoff at D.L. Ligon Coliseum is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

Mason Gibson scored a combined 55 points in New Mexico last week as MSU split a pair of games on its recent road trip.

Gibson scored 24 points in a 90-77 victory at Western New Mexico and poured in a career-high 31 points at Eastern New Mexico, where the Mustangs suffered a 108-91 defeat on Saturday afternoon.

Gibson, a 6-0 sophomore from Allen, Texas, leads the Mustangs and is ninth in the conference with 16.8 points per game. Gibson has converted 81 of his 104 free throws. He has the second-most attempts and third-most made free throws in the LSC this season.

Midwestern State (10-5, 4-5) is the third-highest scoring team in the Lone Star Conference with 87.1 points per game. However, the Mustangs are 14th in scoring defense, allowing opponents to score 80.5 points per game.

Pierre Sanders scored a season-high 21 points in the loss at ENMU on Saturday and is the second-leading scorer for MSU with 14.5 points per game. The 5-10 senior from Hutto, Texas, leads the conference and is 18th among NCAA Division II players with 5.4 assists per game. Sanders has the best assist-to-turnover ratio in the LSC, and fifth-best in the nation, at 3.68.

Will Shepherd has been the most prolific 3-point shooter for the Mustangs, who are shooting 32.5 percent from beyond the arc as a team this season. Shepherd is 30 of 78 (38.5%) from 3-point range and is scoring 12.4 points per game.

Bakari LaStrap, who missed the two games in New Mexico with an injury, is scoring 10.9 points per game and dishing out 3.4 assists per contest.

LaStrap is sixth in the conference with 1.62 steals per game, and the Mustangs are fifth in the league with 8.3 steals per game. Sanders is averaging 1.53 steals per game.

Midwestern State is forcing the second-most turnovers in the LSC with 15.3 per game. The Mustangs are committing only 12 turnovers per game. The plus-3.3 turnover margin is fourth best in the conference and 38th among NCAA Division II programs.

The Mustangs are pulling down the second-most overall rebounds among LSC schools and are 36th among NCAA Division II programs with 39.8 per game. MSU is third in the league and 29th in the nation with 13.2 offensive rebounds per game.

Reggie Hill is the leading rebounder for the Mustangs and 10th in the conference with 6.5 boards per game. Amaechi Chukwu and Shepherd are each pulling down 5.1 rebounds per game, and Sanders is grabbing 4.5 caroms per contest. Sanders is 15th in the conference with 2.13 offensive rebounds per game.

Duncan Alevok leads the LSC and is 16th in the nation with 30 total blocks this season, and he leads the league with two blocks per game.

Midwestern State leads the all-time series with Angelo State, 49-36, but the Rams have won seven of the last 10 meetings, including a 69-55 victory at D.L. Ligon Coliseum last season.

Angelo State used an 11-0 run to take an early 15-4 lead as MSU hit just 7-of-24 shots from the floor in the first half and trailed Angelo State, 38-21, at halftime. Kevon Godwin was the leading scorer for the Rams with 17 points.

Keyshawn Embery-Simpson scored a career-high 36 points, but Angelo State suffered a 93-89 loss to Lubbock Christian at the Rip Griffin Center on Saturday. The Rams suffered their second-straight loss as Lubbock Christian shot 60 percent from the field and hit 16-of-27 shots from 3-point range. The game featured eight ties and 21 lead changes.

Angelo State (12-3, 7-2) is averaging 80.3 points per game and its opponents are scoring 73 points a contest, which is the fifth-best scoring defense in the LSC.

Embery-Simpson, a 6-3 senior guard, is the Rams leading scorer and fifth in the conference with 18.9 points per game, and Godwin is averaging 17.1 points per game, which is seventh in the LSC.

Angelo State is seventh in the league with 36.87 rebounds per game, including 11.2 offensive boards per contest.

Trey Farrer, a 6-9 senior forward, is the Rams leading rebounder with 7.5 boards per game.

The Rams are third in the conference with 15.4 assists per game, and Godwin leads the Rams with 4.5 assists per game, which is fourth-most in the LSC. Willie Guy is 10th in the league with 3.8 assists per game.

Godwin, a 6-2 senior guard, shoots 45.3 percent from the field and leads the conference with 203 attempts from the floor.

Guy leads the conference with 28 total steals and is fourth in the league with 1.87 steals per game. Angelo State averages seven steals per contest and forces 13.7 turnovers per game. The Rams are 12th in the LSC with 14.3 turnovers per game and the minus-0.5 turnover margin is 13th in the league.

Vinay Patel is in his 10th season as a head coach and this is his second season at Angelo State. Patel has a 38-10 (.792) record with the Rams and is 159-105 (.602) for his career, which included time with Northwestern Oklahoma State, West Texas A&M and Oklahoma City.

Justin Leslie is in his fifth season with Midwestern State and his 17th season as a head coach at the collegiate level. His career record is 323-186 (.635) and he is 57-65 (.467) at MSU. Leslie competed as a 6-8 center at Azusa Pacific from 1996-2001. He is one of just five players in Golden State Athletic Conference history to play on four conference championship teams.

Midwestern State returns to D.L. Ligon Coliseum on Saturday afternoon to face UT Permian Basin. Tipoff is scheduled for 3 p.m.
 

--MSUMustangs.com--