SAN ANGELO, Texas -- Midwestern State knew what they were up against Thursday night at Junell Center.
Angelo State was coming off of two losses on its home floor. And the Mustangs hadn't won in their last nine trips to the Concho Valley.
The Rams capitalize on senior leadership with Carvell Teasett and Shemar Smith scoring 20 points each to key a 72-68 win over Midwestern State.
"They knew they needed to scrap and play hard," MSU coach
Justin Leslie said. "And that's what they did."
Angelo State (10-4, 6-4 LSC) controlled the glass and held the Mustangs to two second chance points. Meanwhile, MSU struggled to a 16-of-26 shooting night from the charity stripe to provide the difference in a close game.
"We didn't get a single offensive rebound and they out-rebounded us 22-9 in the second half," Leslie said. "That is a very embarrassing number for us."
Teasett buried a pair of 3-pointers during a 10-0 run midway through the second half, then hit another to give the Rams a 62-52 lead with 6:10 to play.
"This was a game that we just didn't compete well enough in those details," Leslie said.
But the Mustangs battled back to within three points after
Will Shepherd and
Pierre Sanders converted consecutive layups with 1:40 to play.
But Smith buried a turnaround jumper from the right baseline to push the advantage to 70-65 with 13 seconds to go, then put the game away with a pair of free throws 10 seconds later.
"We really let one get away tonight," Leslie said. "We fought and we executed all of our late-game stuff, but we shouldn't let ourselves get into this situation."
Sanders connected on 8-of-17 shots including a pair of triples to finish with a game-high 22 points, while junior
Mason Gibson added 15 points on 4-of-9 shooting, going 6-of-8 from the charity stripe.
Midwestern State fell to 11-4 on the season and moved to 6-3 in league play.
The Mustangs take on UT Permian Basin Saturday afternoon at the Falcon Dome in Odessa. Tipoff is slated for 3 p.m.
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-- MSUMustangs.com --
