WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- Midwestern State picked up the intensity in the second half to blow past Texas A&M International, 70-56, in its home finale Saturday afternoon at D.L. Ligon Coliseum.

The Mustangs (16-11, 10-11 LSC) treated a raucous crowd to its 12th victory on their home floor this season, while snapping TAMIU's five-game winning streak and sending the Dustdevils into a three-way tie for seventh place with Cameron and UT Permian Basin at 12-9.

Midwestern State continues to play spoiler for it season finale Thursday night at Cameron. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

The Mustangs trailed by as many as 14 points in the opening half before coming out of the locker room on fire after the break.

Sophomore Mason Gibson six of his 17 points during a 13-1 MSU run at the start of the half and his driving layup 5 1/2 minutes into the period gave the Mustangs a 42-40 lead and they wouldn't trail again.

Midwestern State took control of the game on the defensive end of the floor, limiting the Dustdevils to 25-percent shooting from the floor including misses on 11 of their 3-point attempts.

That intensity resulted long runs of success on the offensive end of the floor, where the Mustangs put the game away.

Midwestern peeled off another 15-2 run later in the half to push the advantage to 62-48 when Amaechi Chukwu converted a layup in transition with 4:35 to play.

Junior Will Shepherd shook out of a scoring slump to fire in a team-high 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting with three 3-pointers. He also blocked a campaign-high five shots.

Bakari LaStrap pitched in 10 points and six rebounds as the Mustangs outscored TAMIU by 26 points in his 26 minutes of play, while Chukwu finished with 10 points and eight rebounds with a plus-24 in 32 minutes of play.

Senior Pierre Sanders delivered an all-around performance with six points, seven rebounds, and seven assists.

Senior John Achebe paced the Dustdevils with 12 points, while hauling in eight rebounds.
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