The Midwestern State basketball team kicked off its season with a 72-64 victory over Southwestern Assemblies of God University.

However, the victory didn’t come easy for the Mustangs.

SAGU had most of the first half under control as the halftime scoreboard read 37-34 in favor of the Lions. Head basketball coach Nelson Haggerty was displeased with the Mustangs’ performance thus he had a word with the home side at halftime.

“We obviously didn’t play well in the first half and I challenged the guys to make improvements at half time and they stepped up,” he said.

After a dreadful first half, MSU was able to make a comeback in the second half by playing without compromise.

Monzaigo Williams scored 15 points including back-to-back three pointers in the second half. The new recruit was able to add four rebounds and seven assists to his repertoire.

“Monzaigo was one of the guys I challenged at the point guard spot,” Haggerty said. “I really thought he played well in the second half. He did a great job pushing the basketball, finding people and being aggressive.”

Cam Adderley also proved his importance to the team on his debut with 12 points and eight rebounds.

“Cameron showed a lot of toughness,” commented Haggerty. “He definitely made some tough plays. I was pretty excited about that.”

Haggerty was also pleased with Corbin Thomas, who turned a new leaf defensively in the second half to make nine defensive rebounds alongside his 13 points.

“I’m looking for him to do even more than he did in that half for us,” Haggerty said. “I am encouraged with how these guys are responding.”

Yet, Haggerty criticized the defense, claiming the team could have kept the ball out of the paint as well as made better rotations.

“Defensively we didn’t do a good job of keeping the ball out of the paint and our rotations weren’t very good,” he said. “I thought we could have rebounded a lot better than what we did.”

Midwestern State opened its previous season with a 100-63 defeat over Mid-America Christian University – hence a larger score margin was expected from the Mustangs. The team, who left Haggerty encouraged after a superb display at road scrimmage, didn’t seem to execute well at its first home game.

“I think for our first home game we weren’t mentally prepared,” he said. “We did a lot of things that were uncharacteristic and out of our way of doing things. We didn’t play with a lot of enthusiasm and passion.”

But with time, Haggerty said the team is expected to find their individual identity and get familiar with the roles in order to be tough, physical and aggressive for 40 minutes.

“Everyone is trying to find an identity, maybe an individual identity with their roles on this basketball team,” Haggerty said. “I still believe we can be a good defensive team and I do believe offensively we can score but we just need to find that chemistry.”

Monday night’s exhibition against Sul Ross State University was quite entertaining as the Mustangs defeated their guests 86-48.

Keith Spellman contributed 21 points and led the Mustangs in scoring.

The Mustangs will travel to Louisiana State-Shreveport in the Southwestern Oklahoma State Classic in Weatherford this Friday. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m.