The men’s basketball team kicked off its regular season with a 94-65 win over Louisiana State-Shreveport Friday night.
“I feel good about where we are at right now,” head basketball coach Nelson Haggerty. “They did a good job and executed well.”
Thomas Corbin and Keith Spellman led the Mustangs scoring with 17 points apiece coupled with seven and three rebounds respectively. The newly recruited pair has been producing a well-needed force in Mustangs’ attack from the pre-season games.
“Corbin had a great game,” Haggerty said. “I thought he played very well.”
Kevin Grayer made a great impact with 14 points and three rebounds, which is a massive improvement from the previous season where he averaged four points per game. Derek Kaster also contributed immensely to the victory, scoring 13 points while rebounding six.
Monzaigo Williams was able to make nine points as well as six assists to define the quality of an outstanding guard.
“Monzaigo is scoring well and making good plays,” Haggerty said. “
Chris Buttermore put eight points through as a decent contribution the guests’ total.
Other scorers for Midwestern State included Cam Adderley with six points, Matt Gallagher with four and Derrell Gibbs, Eddie D’Haiti and Conner Geiser with two points each.
After facing LSU-Shreveport, the Mustangs traveled to Southwestern Oklahoma Saturday night, where they experienced a hard-fought 73-60 victory.
MSU might have won by a reasonable margin at the end but the win didn’t come easy.
After trailing by six points at half-time and up to eight in the second half, the team was able to build up enough thrust to make a comeback at the end.
Thomas brought out quite a similar performance to the previous game’s as he scored 17 points and made nine rebounds.
Though Williams was not the highest scorer with 14 points, he was the most consistent playmaker on the court with eight assists.
Grayer got 13 points on the board as Spellman scored eight for an impressive display of offense while Gibbs, D’Haiti and Buttermore scored six each to help bolster the Mustangs scoring force.
The Mustangs’ next action is Oklahoma Christian this Friday and then Colorado State-Pueblo Saturday.
Tipoff is 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. respectively.