WICHITA FALLS, Texas – Basketball season begins for the Midwestern State men on Monday night as McMurry visits D.L. Ligon Coliseum at 7:30 p.m. for the season opener.

Midwestern State finished last season with an 8-19 record overall and 6-14 against Lone Star Conference opponents. The Mustangs finished 6-7 at home last season but closed the campaign with a six-game losing streak.

Four players return from last year's squad and they are joined by 10 new faces.

Charles McClennahan Jr., a 6-8 fifth-year senior forward, appeared in 21 games last season and averaged 8.5 points and 4.5 rebounds for the Mustangs, scoring a season-high 23 points in a 96-86 win over UT Permian Basin. He also had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds in a 99-91 loss to Adams State.

Teshaundre Cole, a 6-6 senior forward, led the team with 24 blocks in 24 games and averaged 6.2 points and 5.0 rebounds per game last season. He had a season-high 14 points in a 77-70 win over Angelo State and grabbed 11 rebounds in an 84-60 loss at Dallas Baptist.

Kadon Jackson is back for his sophomore campaign after appearing in 20 games last season, averaging 3.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. Jackson had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds in a 69-63 win at UT Tyler.

Junior Levi Rutledge, a 6-5 swingman, was the 24Strong Teammate of the Year last season, appearing in 11 games for the Mustangs.

Senior guard Aric Demings, who played high school basketball at Duncanville and won three state championships, transferred to MSU from West Florida, where he appeared in 25 games last season. He was a member of the WAC All-Freshman team while playing for Utah Tech in the 2023-24 season.

Josh Telfort started 61 games in two seasons at Temple College and averaged 14.5 points and 7.9 rebounds for the Leopards. The 6-5 swingman from Canada shot 48.9 percent from the field in his two years with Temple College. He was selected first team all-conference in the NTJCAC both years in Temple, Texas.

Josiah Kirkwood started 37 of his 68 appearances at Butler Community College, and the 5-10 guard from Kansas City, Missouri, scored 10.4 points per game in his two seasons with the Grizzlies.

Trenton Pane, a 5-10 sophomore guard, began his collegiate career at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and appeared in four games for the Islanders. Pane played high school basketball at Allen, where he was All-District Offensive MVP as a senior and was first-team All-State.

Theo Grant, a 6-4 senior guard from San Antonio, came to MSU from LSU New Orleans after starting his collegiate career at Temple College, where he averaged 18.5 points per game as a sophomore. He started 10 of 29 for the Privateers in the 2024-25 season and scored 6.7 points per game while grabbing 1.8 rebounds per game.

Cyrus Shaw is a 6-3 sophomore guard that started 12 of the 24 games in which he appeared for Newman. Shaw shot 50 percent from the field and was 10-of-30 from beyond the arc. He averaged 12 points per game for the Jets.

Caleb Richard, Joshua Mendes, Theo Brannan and Vonte Sanders are four freshman on the roster for head coach Jon Trilli, who begins his second season as the head coach at his alma mater and is calling this a "foundational season" for the program.

Midwestern State is facing McMurry for the first time since 2014 and leads the all-time series 56-19, winning 33 of the 38 encounters in Wichita Falls, where the schools first played in December of 1946.

McMurry was 10-15 last season and is picked to finish fourth in the American Southwest Conference. Guards Sebastian Mackey and Koye Rondeno were named Players to Watch along with senior wing Mikhali Roberts.

The War Hawks opened the season on Friday night with a 73-70 loss at LeTourneau. JaRayl Peoples was the leading scorer fro McMurry with 13 points, and Roberts finished with a team-high seven rebounds. McMurry shot 48.2 percent (27 of 56) and hit 6-of-19 shots from 3-point range in a game that featured seven ties and 17 lead changes.

Midwestern State travels to Colorado for its next two games to face CSU Pueblo and UCCS on Friday and Saturday.