MSU Texas Men’s Basketball team put on a show against UT Permian Basin for the last home game of the season on Thursday, Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m. winning 88-63.

Justin Leslie, men’s basketball head coach, said it was a very good team effort tonight.

“Offensively, we played really well, very unselfish. We made 24 assists on 33 field goals [which] is impressive,  and only five turnovers. In the first half, our defense, we allowed too many baskets for UTPB, but we turned it on in the second half and played really well,” Leslie said.

Reflecting on this past season, Leslie said he is most proud of the character development of the team and seeing how the players support, trust, respect and love one another. Leslie also said there’s no questions that the team needed this win for momentum and controlling their destiny.

“This improves our seating and puts us up there with the end of the conference tournament. We just need to keep building momentum and getting ourselves ready for it. We have no focus for next week other than winning on Saturday; we need to win these games. It’s all about winning that game on Saturday then seeing who we play on Tuesday,” Leslie said.

Trae Jones, (No.2), guard and business management redshirt junior, led the Mustangs on offense. Jones scored a total of 15 points, while shooting 60% from the field and 50% from the three-point line.

“I played well, especially according to my teammates. We work on this everyday in practice so it’s no surprise to anybody, except maybe just outsiders. What the fans saw tonight is exactly what we do in practice, moving the ball, sharing the ball. I think we had a season high in assists and a season high low turnover, and that shows exactly who we are as a team,” Jones said.

Jermane Carter (No. 15), forward and psychology junior, scored 14 points and had the highest rebounds and assists for the night, with nine and four respectively.

“I feel pretty great, our coach has been hassling us at practice for getting rebounds and so I’m glad I got to be that person tonight. What we do in practice translated to the game we played tonight. For conference, I want us to keep playing the same and not underestimate our opponent. If we keep doing what we’ve been doing we will perform well, if we shy away from that then we are going to lose, we just have to stick to the basics,” Carter said.

The Mustangs next game will be Saturday Feb 27 at 4 p.m. at the Falcon Dome in Odesssa, Texas against UT Permian Basin. If the team wins this game, they will place fifth for the upcoming Lonestar Conference Tournament.