BOX SCORE: Angelo State 83, Midwestern State 68

SAN ANGELO – Home dominance continued for the Angelo State men's basketball team with 10 Rams scoring – led by 18 points from Kenny Williams – in an 83-68 Lone Star Conference win over Midwestern State on Wednesday at Stephens Arena inside the Junell Center.

ASU (13-4, 3-2 LSC) improved to 9-0 at home with the victory in which it led by 10 at halftime for the second consecutive game at home. Williams was one rebound shy of his eighth double-double of the season with nine rebounds and also had two blocked shots, two assists and two steals. Chantz Chambers and Tommy Woolridge each added 12 points in the win, while Bryan Hammond scored nine points and led the team with six assists against the Mustangs (11-6, 3-2 LSC).

"I knew our guys would be ready to play tonight and I was just proud of our overall team effort," ASU head coach Chris Beard said. "We had 10 players score in the game and 12 or 13 contributed. To me, it was probably our most balanced team effort of the season."

Angelo State led 41-31 at halftime and would push the lead to 13 at 55-42 with a jumper from Chambers with 11:52 remaining in the game. The Rams' biggest lead of the night was 20 when they led 71-51 on a pair of free throws from Chambers and it was matched at 73-53 on a Williams layup with 4:11 to play. The 15-point win is the largest-win for the Rams in conference play this season and came through the team shooting 50 percent from the field and limiting the Mustangs to 39.7 percent. ASU forced 21 turnovers, limited its turnovers to 15 and had three blocked shots and eight steals in the game.

"There was a special focus tonight," Beard said. "I give the credit to our six seniors. During shoot around and in the locker room there was a lot of chatter about how we were going to have to defend against a good Midwestern team."

Eddie D'Haiti led the Mustangs with 17 points and six rebounds, while Cam Adderley had eight points. ASU limited MSU's leading scorer, Monzaigo Williams, to seven points which was 10 points below his season average of 17.3 points per game. The Mustangs struggled at the free-throw line in the second half by going 8 of 18 and finished the game 12 of 24 from the line (50 percent). ASU went 20-for-34 (58 .8 percent) from the line with Chambers leading the way by making 7 of his 10 free throws.

Woolridge led the Rams with 10 points in the first half, including hitting three 3-pointers. Williams added eight points and three rebounds, while Ryan Marsh, Chris Talkington, Reggie Sutton and Daniel Skinner each scored four points in the first 20 minutes of play. Talkington finished the game with eight points, while Marsh and Sutton each had six. Skinner finished with his four first-half points, but added seven rebounds and two assists.

"Tommy is a shot maker and that's why we recruited him," Beard said. "But more important than his shots, I thought he had a defensive focus tonight. I liked his body language and thought he was into the game. He was a great teammate on the bench and we need Tommy to play like this every night if we're going to be factor in the Lone Star Conference."

ASU's bench outscored the Mustang reserves 36-26 in the game, led by Woolridge and Chambers whose double figure scoring performances both came off the bench along with Thomas Brandsma who had five points and Omari Gudul who had three.

The Rams fell behind very early, but went on a 9-0 run to take a 10-5 lead when Sutton hit two jumpers in between a Talkington jump shot. MSU would battle back to tie the game at 12, but the Rams had a 21-17 advantage when Woolridge hit his first 3-pointer and then a 24-17 lead on his second. The lead grew to 32-22 on two free throws by Marsh and to 36-24 on a Marsh layup with 4:23 remaining in the first half. Hammond drilled a 3-pointer to give the Rams a 39-24 lead and a Skinner layup to 41-27.

ASU's 41-31 halftime was supported by the Rams shooting 53 percent from the field and hitting five 3-pointers (3 by Woolridge, one each from Williams and Hammond). The Rams were 5 of 9 (55 percent) from beyond the arc and held MSU to 40 percent shooting in the first half. ASU finished the game 7-for-14 from beyond the arc. D'Haiti led the Mustangs with 12 points and four rebounds. The Rams forced 14 turnovers in the first half.

Angelo State is 9-0 at home for the first time since the 2000-01 season where the Rams went 10-0 at home throughout the schedule. ASU has now won two straight games against MSU after earning a 53-50 win in Wichita Falls last season. Both teams scored 30 points in the paint with ASU outscoring the Mustangs 6-2 in transition.

UP NEXT: The Rams will travel to Lawton, Oklahoma this weekend to play Cameron at 4 p.m. on Saturday at the Aggie Gym. The Aggies (9-7, 3-2 LSC) will be coming off a loss after falling 59-57 on Wednesday against Texas A&M-Kingsville. Following the game in Oklahoma, ASU will have a week-long break from game action before hosting the Javelinas at the Junell Center at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 1.