WICHITA FALLS -- Midwestern State raced out to 16-8 lead in the early going Saturday night and never looked back as the nation's ninth-ranked team cruised to a 96-83 win over ACU in Lone Star Conference South Division men's basketball action at D.L. Ligon Coliseum.
The win drops the Wildcats to 8-17 overall and 1-9 in the LSC South Division. The Mustangs, meanwhile, are now 24-2 and 9-2. ACU will close out the home portion of the 2009-10 season Tuesday night when it hosts Eastern New Mexico at 7:30 p.m. at Moody Coliseum.
After the Wildcats rallied to within 10-8 with 16:03 left in the game on a 3-pointer by
Preston Davis, the Mustangs ran off a 6-0 run that gave them an eight-point lead over the Wildcats. All the points in the run were on 3-pointers by Craig Green and Chris Hagan as the Mustangs got some separation from the Wildcats.
After that it was all Mustangs as Midwestern State pushed its lead to as many as 19 points in the first half on their way to a 47-31 halftime advantage.
The second half wasn't much different as the Mustangs pushed their lead to as many as 26 points (81-55) with 8:19 to play on a pair of free throws by Green.
Eddie Thompson led five Wildcats in double figures with 19 points as he hit 5 of 9 from 3-point range.
Ben Warton had 17 points and a team-hgih seven rebounds, while Davis had 12 points,
Dustin Heiman 11 and
Marcus Washington 10 for the Wildcats. Green led all scorers with 27 points for the Mustangs.
