FRISCO, Texas -- Senior Pierre Sanders and junior Mason Gibson led Midwestern State to the No. 3-seed in the Lone Star Conference Men's Basketball Championship and were both named to the All-Lone Star Conference First Team at the annual awards banquet on Wednesday night.

Senior forward Will Shepherd received honorable mention on the All-Lone Star Conference team after the Mustangs finished the campaign with a 22-6 overall record and a 17-5 mark in conference play.

Sanders is in his fifth season at Midwestern State and receives All-Lone Star Conference honors for the fourth time during his career. Sanders earned honorable mention in 2021-22 and was selected to the third-team in 2022-23. Last year, the 5-10 guard from Hutto, Texas, was named second-team All-Conference.

Sanders finished the regular season averaging 12.3 points and 3.9 assists per game. He shot 50 percent from the field overall (131-of-262), 41.9 percent from 3-point range (36-of-86) and 85.2 percent from the free-throw line (46-of-54).

Sanders played in all 28 regular season games for the third consecutive season and averaged 29.2 minutes per game. Sanders started in 109 of 129 games as a Mustang, including every game of the last three seasons, and he averaged 30.1 minutes per game. No one has played more minutes for Midwestern State than the 3,882 logged by Sanders.

Sanders enters the postseason as the 10th all-time leading scorer at Midwestern State with 1,567 points, and he is just four points behind O'Neal Weaver for ninth place. Sanders is 11th all-time with 568 made field goals, just three fewer than Ricky Cobb.

Sanders needs just 10 more assists to match Marquette Wilkins total of 465 as the all-time assists leader at Midwestern State, and Sanders is third in school history with 3.5 assists per game.

Sanders has taken the ninth-most field goal attempts in school history with 1,224 and is just six behind Gary Blount.

The high-jumping Sanders is 13th on the all-time list of rebounders at Midwestern State with 581 in his five seasons with the Mustangs, and he is averaging 3.8 rebounds per game this season.

Sanders, who was named to the All-Defensive Team this season, has 50 steals in 28 games, matching a career high. He has 203 career steals, which is second all-time at MSU. Only James Burkhalter has more with 227 steals in 134 games. Sanders is fourth in school history with 1.6 steals per game, and he is averaging 1.8 steals per game this season.

Gibson finished the regular season as the fourth leading scorer in the conference with 17 points per game.

The 6-0 junior from Allen, Texas, scored double figure in 24 of 27 games played this season and scored at least 20 points in 10 games. Gibson poured in a season-high 33 points in a 119-114 double-overtime victory against Adams State in November. He scored 31 points in a 77-75 loss to Dallas Baptist at Burg Center on Dec. 4.

Gibson is hitting 75.6 percent (91-of-120) of his free throws this season. He is shooting 48.3 percent from the field (160-of-331) and 44.5 percent from 3-point range (49-of-110).

Gibson is also averaging 2.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game for the Mustangs.

Shepherd, who was Gibson's roommate at Oakland before both players transferred to Midwestern State, is scoring 9.5 points per game and is the Mustangs second-leading rebounder with 5.1 boards per game.

The 6-8 forward from Dallas is also shooting 39.6 percent (38-of-96) from 3-point distance and has hit 79.5 percent (31-of-39) of his free throws. Shepherd is shooting 47.6 percent (99-of-208) from the field overall.

Midwestern State, ranked No. 25 in the nation, faces West Texas A&M in the first round of the Lone Star Conference Men's Basketball Championship. Tipoff is scheduled for noon on Friday at Comerica Center in Frisco.

 

2024-25 LSC Men's Basketball All-Lone Star Conference Awards

First Team

Player	Team	Pos	Yr	Hometown
Cameron Kahn	Dallas Baptist	G	Sr.	Sulphur Springs, Texas
Ricky Lujan	Dallas Baptist	G	Sr.	Las Cruces, N.M.
Ethan Duncan	Lubbock Christian	G	So.	Lubbock, Texas
Mason Gibson	Midwestern State	G	Jr.	Allen, Texas
Pierre Sanders	Midwestern State	G	Sr.	Hutto, Texas
Lachlan Bofinger	St. Mary's	F	Sr.	Sydney, Australia
Damani Claxton	St. Mary's	G	Jr.	Bronx, N.Y.
Ahamed Mohammed	West Texas A&M	G	Jr.	Glendale, Ariz.

Second Team

Player	Team	Pos	Yr	Hometown
Sterling Gaston-Chapman	Angelo State	G	Sr.	Wichita, Kan.
Xavion Brown	Dallas Baptist	G	Jr.	Sacramento, Calif.
Jose Murrillo	Eastern New Mexico	F	Jr.	Chihuahua, Mexico
Mario Whitley	Eastern New Mexico	F	Sr.	Saginaw, Mich.
Najeeb Muhammad	Lubbock Christian	G	Sr.	Las Vegas, Nev.
Gavino Ramos	St. Edward's	G	Sr.	San Antonio, Texas
Lewis Rowe	St. Edward's	C	Sr.	Adelaide, Australia
Dario Domingos	UT Permian Basin	C	Sr.	Midland, Texas
Alex Mathews	UT Permian Basin	F	Sr.	Elizabethtown, Ky.
Noah Pagotto	West Texas A&M	G	So.	Wollongong, Australia

Third Team

Player	Team	Pos	Yr	Hometown
Shemar Smith	Angelo State	F	Sr.	Norman, Okla.
Lavell Brodnex	Cameron	G	Sr.	Saginaw, Mich.
Jaxon Ingram	Cameron	C	Sr.	Durant, Okla.
Aaron Jacob	Cameron	F	Jr.	Austin, Texas
Treyvon Byrd	Eastern New Mexico	G/F	Jr.	Durham, N.C.
Cougar Downing	Eastern New Mexico	G	Sr.	Atchison, Kan.
Ty Caswell	Lubbock Christian	G/F	Sr.	Wichita Falls, Texas
Isaiah Payne	Texas A&M-Kingsville	G	Sr.	Vill Platte, La.
Maison Adeleye	UT Permian Basin	G/F	Sr.	Arlington, Texas
D.J. Armstrong	UT Permian Basin	G/F	Sr.	Orlando, Fla.

Honorable Mention

Player	Team	Pos	Yr	Hometown
Kaden Evans	Angelo State	G	Sr.	Kansas City, Mo.
Reggie Prudhomme	Cameron	G	Sr.	Missouri City, Texas
Cooper Jackson	Eastern New Mexico	G	Jr.	Lawrence, Kan.
Amondo Miller, Jr.	Lubbock Christian	G/F	Jr.	Littleton, Colo.
Sean Murphy	Lubbock Christian	F	Sr.	Auckland, New Zealand
Will Shepherd	Midwestern State	F	Sr.	Dallas, Texas
Jamison Kay	St. Edward's	F	Jr.	Yuma, Ariz.
Ethan Yancy	Sul Ross State	G	Sr.	Houston, Texas
Esteban Roacho	Texas A&M International	G/F	Sr.	Cuauhtemoc, Mexico
Dontrell Hewlett	UT Tyler	G	Sr.	Sacramento, Calif.

LSC All-Defensive Team

Player	Team	Pos	Yr	Hometown
Kaden Evans	Angelo State	G	Sr.	Kansas City, Mo.
Xavion Brown	Dallas Baptist	G	Jr.	Sacramento, Calif.
Cooper Jackson	Eastern New Mexico	G	Jr.	Lawrence, Kan.
Jose Murrillo	Eastern New Mexico	F	Jr.	Chihuahua, Mexico
Pierre Sanders	Midwestern State	G	Sr.	Hutto, Texas

LSC All-Freshman Team

Player	Team	Pos	Yr	Hometown
Mo Austin	Eastern New Mexico	G	Fr.	Pueblo, Colo.
Sam McKinney	St. Edward's	F	Fr.	Buda, Texas
Narit Chotikavanic	West Texas A&M	G	Fr.	Plano, Texas
Bob Griechen	West Texas A&M	G	Fr.	Geraldton, Australia
Jailyn Sledge	West Texas A&M	G	Fr.	Amarillo, Texas

LSC All-Academic Team

Player	Team	Pos	Yr	Major	Hometown
Xavion Brown	Dallas Baptist	G	Jr.	Kinesiology	Sacramento, Calif.
Ty Caswell	Lubbock Christian	F	Sr.	Accounting	Wichita Falls, Texas
Aaron Gonzales	Lubbock Christian	G	Sr.	Mathematics	Spring, Texas
Nikolaus Gustavson	UT Tyler	G	Sr.	Computer Science	Helsinki, Finland
Noah Pagotto	West Texas A&M	G	So.	Pre-Engineering	Wollongong, Australia