FORT SMITH, Arkansas -- Midwestern State makes its final visit to Arkansas-Fort Smith as a Lone Star Conference rival on Thursday, and the Mustangs are anxious to atone for their subpar performance against UT Permian Basin in their last outing. Tipoff at Stubblefield Center is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

Midwestern State took an eight-point lead with 7:47 to play in the first half against UTPB on Saturday, but the Falcons rallied for a 62-57 victory.

"We haven't done ourselves any favors with our losses to Permian Basin, Cameron and St. Ed's," Midwestern State head coach Justin Leslie said. "Our margin for error is gone, and we have to go out and win the games we're 'supposed to win,' and we got to go steal a couple of others."

Leslie called the loss to UTPB "the worst performance of the year" and has told the team to "shorten their horizon in games."

"There's not a lot of time. There's one or two possessions right in front of you and those one or two possessions — a stop and a score, or a score and a stop — needs to be the extent of your time horizon when you play the game," Leslie said.

Midwestern State (11-6, 5-6), which is 3-2 on the road this season, is the third-highest scoring team in the LSC and 31st among NCAA Division II programs with 85.4 points per game, but the Mustangs have allowed opponents to score 79.5 points a contest.

Mason Gibson, who missed the last two games due to injury, is the leading scorer for MSU and ninth in the conference with 16.8 points per game. Gibson scored 31 points in his last game at Eastern New Mexico. The 6-0 sophomore guard from Allen, Texas, is averaging 21.2 points per game on the road this season. Gibson is 81 of 104 (.779) from the free-throw line and has accounted for the fourth-most points from the foul line in the LSC.

Pierre Sanders scored a season-high 31 points in a double-overtime win against Angelo State last week and is the Mustangs second-leading scorer with 15.2 points per game. The 5-10 senior guard from Hutto, Texas, leads the conference with 5.4 assists per game and has the best assist-to-turnover ratio in the LSC at 3.41, which is 12th-best in the nation. Sanders is one of 10 players in NCAA Division II to post a triple-double this season. In a 108-104 double overtime win against St. Mary's on Nov. 18, Sanders had 14 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds.

Will Shepherd hit a season-high five 3-pointers on eight attempts and scored 19 points in the loss to UTPB on Saturday. Shepherd is scoring 12.9 points per game for the Mustangs and is shooting 41.8 percent from beyond the arc this season (38 of 91). The 6-8 junior forward from Dallas, Texas, is shooting 45 percent from the floor (72 of 160) and 86 percent from the foul line (37 of 43).

Bakari LaStrap missed the last road trip due to injury but has scored double-figures in each of his last three appearances. The 6-1 junior guard from Houston is averaging 11.1 points and 3.7 assists per game this season.

Reggie Hill posted his first double-double as a Mustang with 14 points and 13 rebounds in the 88-79 win over Angelo State last week and is the leading rebounder for MSU with 6.5 boards per game. The 6-8 junior forward from Melbourne, Florida, is averaging 8.2 points per game and is shooting 47.7 percent from the field (42 of 88), including 35.9 percent from 3-point range (14 of 39).

Midwestern State leads the conference and is 23rd in the nation with 40.35 rebounds per game, and the Mustangs are third in the league — 24th in the nation — with 13.35 offensive rebounds per game.

Duncan Alevok is the leading shot blocker in the LSC with 31 blocks this season, which is 23rd in the nation, and MSU is blocking the second-most shots in the league with 4.6 per game. Alevok is responsible for 1.82 blocks per game.

LaStrap is 10th in the conference with 1.53 steals per game and has 23 total steals this season. Sanders leads the team with 24 steals in 17 games. MSU is fifth in the league with 7.9 steals per game.

The Mustangs are forcing the fourth-most turnovers in the LSC with 14.59 per game and seventh in the conference with 12.3 turnovers committed per game. The plus-2.3 turnover margin is fifth-best in the league.

Midwestern State has won its last four meetings with Arkansas-Fort Smith and leads the all-time series, 6-4. This will be the final meeting as conference opponents. UAFS is joining the MIAA in the 2024-2025 academic year.

Last season, the Mustangs held the Lions' leading scorer Payton Brown to nine points and dominated the second half en route to a 70-62 victory. In their last visit to Stubblefield Center, MSU rallied from a 10-point deficit and escaped Fort Smith with a 63-62 victory in December of 2021.

Arkansas-Fort Smith (4-14, 2-9) has won its last three home games, including a 57-51 victory over Texas A&M International on Jan. 13. The Lions are 4-3 at home this season. UAFS is coming off back-to-back losses, suffering a 93-80 defeat in its last outing at St. Edward's.

UAFS is scoring 73.4 points per game and allowing opponents to score 79.9 points per contest. The minus 6.6 scoring margin is 13th in the LSC.

The Lions are averaging 29.83 points per game from their reserves, which is the second-highest bench scoring average in the league and 30th in the nation.

Brown, a 6-2 sophomore guard, is the leading scorer for UAFS with 12.3 points per game. He led the league last season with 19.7 points per game. Brown scored a season-high 21 points in a 75-62 loss at UTPB on Dec. 9. Brown averages 2.2 3-pointers per game, which is ninth-most in the LSC this season.

Roland McCoy, a 6-2 junior guard from Chicago and a transfer from Alabama State, is coming off a 20-point outing at St. Edwards and has scored double-figures in each of his last nine appearances for the Lions, including a season-high 32-point performance in a 77-69 loss at Oklahoma Christian on Dec. 19. McCoy is averaging 14.5 points per game against LSC opponents this season. McCoy hit six 3-pointers at home in an 85-63 win over Texas A&M-Kingsville on Jan. 11. He also knocked down six 3-pointers at Oklahoma Christian.

Furaha Cadeaux de Dieu is the leading rebounder for the Lions with 4.9 boards per game. The 6-7 senior from Rwanda matched his season-high with eight rebounds in a 90-57 loss at St. Mary's last week. He also had eight rebounds in a 73-69 loss to Lubbock Christian on Dec. 2.

Jace Linenberger, a 6-6 freshman forward from Hays, Kansas, grabbed a season-high 10 rebounds in the loss at Oklahoma Christian last month and is coming off a season-high 10-point performance in the loss at St. Edward's on Saturday. Linenberger is averaging 5.2 points and 4.6 rebounds a game for UAFS this season.

Arkansas-Fort Smith is 10th in the conference with 34.7 rebounds per game and 14th in the LSC with 9.9 offensive boards per game. The Lions are 15th in the league with a minus-2.2 rebounding margin.

Zane Gibson is in his first season as the head coach at UAFS but is no stranger to the LSC. Gibson coached three seasons at Western New Mexico, where he was 28-37 and led the Mustangs to a 17-12 record in his last season at Silver 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 324-187 (.634) and he is 58-66 (.468) 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 resumes its four-game road trip at Oklahoma Christian on Saturday. Tipoff at the Eagles Nest is scheduled for 3 p.m.
 

--MSUMustangs.com--