WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- Will Shepherd hit a season-high five 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 19 points for Midwestern State, but the Mustangs were unable to fend off UT Permian Basin in a 62-57 loss at D.L. Ligon Coliseum on Saturday afternoon.
Midwestern State is 11-6 overall with a 5-6 record against Lone Star Conference opponents. UT Permian Basin is also 11-6 overall but sits 6-5 in conference play.
The Mustangs established an eight-point lead with 7:47 to play in the first half, but the Falcons outscored Midwestern State 16-7 to take a 34-33 halftime lead.
In the second half, Midwestern State was 9 of 29 from the field and outscored by the Falcons over the final 20 minutes, 28-24.
"That's just a horrible, horrible offensive performance," Midwestern State head coach
Justin Leslie said. "We just allowed them in the second half to get second-chance point after second-chance opportunity, and we didn't value the ball offensively — it came out, and it bit us."
UT Permian Basin held the Mustangs to 37 percent shooting for the game (20 of 54), but the Falcons only hit 39 percent of their shots from the field (23 of 59).
"I told the guys in a timeout, 'any illusions you had of this being a pretty game, throw them out,'" Leslie said. "This was going to be rough. This was going to be ugly, and this was going to be a scrap that we had to show up and find a way to come up with the ball on the defensive end — and offensively — find a way to put the ball in the hole."
"In a game that's ugly like this, they stayed in character better than we did," Leslie said. "When we started missing shots, there were a few guys that started doubting some of their normal looks. You can't do that. You have to stay confident, and you have to know what your spots are. Ultimately, we let ourselves down at the free-throw line."
Midwestern State was only 8 of 15 from the free-throw line, and UTPB finished 8 of 10 at the charity stripe.
The Mustangs won the rebounding battle, 38-35, as
Amaechi Chukwu pulled down a season-high 13 boards in the loss.
Alex Matthews finished with 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field, and DJ Armstrong hit four 3-pointers for the Falcons to account for his 12 points. Lathaniel Bastian finished with nine points and 13 rebounds in the victory.
UTPB leads the all-time series, 10-8, after scoring its second win in eight trips to D.L. Ligon Coliseum.
Bakari LaStrap scored 13 points on 4-of-8 shooting and dished out six assists for the Mustangs, who begin a four-game road trip at Arkansas-Fort Smith on Thursday night. Tipoff at the Stubblefield Center is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Before Midwestern State departs Wichita Falls, Leslie will tell his team to "toughen up, toughen up and find a way to get it done. Absolutely unacceptable level of competitive spirit out there."
--MSUMustangs.com--
