West Texas A&M mounts huge comeback to upset No. 25 Midwestern State, 70-57 - Lone Star Conference Skip To Main Content
Trevor Fleeman

Men's Basketball

West Texas A&M mounts huge comeback to upset No. 25 Midwestern State, 70-57

FRISCO, Texas – In their third meeting of the season, West Texas A&M flipped the script on No. 25 Midwestern State and turned the tables to upset the No. 3 seeded Mustangs, 70-57, Friday at Comerica Center.

The Buffaloes had lost both regular-season meetings with MSU despite holding sizeable halftime leads. This time, WT rallied from as much as 14 down and eight points at the half, to outscored MSU by 21 points in the second half to advance to Saturday’s semifinal round.

WTAMU, the No. 6 seed in the tourney, will play the winner of LCU/Eastern New Mexico Saturday at 8:30 p.m.

For MSU, the Mustangs will get ready for next week’s NCAA regional tourney as the current No. 4 seed in the South Central.

Early on, it appeared as if MSU would once again have the upper hand on the Buffs, as they used an inside-outside game to build a 26-11 lead. But the momentum shifted before halftime when WT’s Ahamed Mohammed banked in a desperation 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down, and then followed it up with a three-point play for six quick points. MSU would take a 34-26 lead into halftime.

MSU led 39-32 before WT went on an 11-1 run to take the lead, and eventually a 28-6 run that built their own double-digit lead. The Buffs were in the bonus very early in the second half and hit their second-half free throws (14-17) to close out the win.

Mohammed led all scorers with 25 points, while Narit Chotikavanic added 18 points and five steals. Noah Pagotto had 17 points and nine rebounds.

For the Mustangs, Bakari LaStrap came off the bench to score 20 points. First-team All-LSC guards Mason Gibson and Pierre Sanders combined for 3-of-26 shooting and were held to two and four points, respectively.
 
WTAMU Notes:
  • WT has won five of the last six tournament titles, including five straight from 2019-23.
  • The Buffs, as the No. 6 seed, won their first game as the lower-seed since the 2013 tournament, when they were a No. 7 and upset No. 2 Cameron.
  • The Buffaloes avenged two close losses to MSU this year, 70-69 and 63-58.
  • Mohammed finished the regular season as the LSC leading scorer at 18.7 ppg and finished with a game-high 25.
  • The 46 rebounds is tied for the fourth-most by the Buffaloes this year. WT is 5-0 in those games.
  • Narit Chotikavanic had a season-high with five steals.
  • Noah Pogotto, the LSC’s seventh-leading rebounder at 6.1 per game, pulled down nine boards to lead the Buffs.
 
 MSU Notes:
  • MSU has not won an LSC Tournament game since the 2022 season when they advanced to the semifinals. The Mustangs’ last two losses in this tournament have been to West Texas A&M.
  • MSU was seeking to beat WT for the third time in a season for the first time since 2007.
  • Leading scorer Mason Gibson had finished in double figures in 24 of the first 27 games this year. But he was 1-of-12 shooting and finished with two points. Pierre Sanders was 2-of-14 from the field for four points.
  • MSU was 11-0 this year when pulling down more than 36 rebounds in a game. The Mustangs had 39 boards against WT.
  • Pierre Sanders moved into second place on the school’s all-time starts with 110 and needs one more to tie Marquette Wilkins (111). Sanders also needs seven assists to pass Wilkins (465) as the school’s all-time assist leader.