WICHITA FALLS, TX - Texas Wesleyan Men's Basketball (4-1) snapped a three-game losing streak against DII Midwestern State Saturday night with a come-from-behind, 70-66 thrilling triumph.

Down 66-65, LaMont Simmons found his way inside for a lay-up with seven seconds left. Midwestern State turned the ball over on its next possession - stolen by Christian Russell - and Peyton Sallee nailed a pair of free throws to ice the game inside two seconds.

The Rams squashed the Mustangs defensively in the first half, limiting MSU to just 21 points on 6-of-23 shooting with seven turnovers and while Midwestern State came out firing in the second half, so did Akeem White. The transfer from Barton Community College scored 21 of his 27 points in the second half, hitting 10-of-14 shots in 16 minutes of work. 12 of those points came in the final 9:07, including a slam that gave the Rams a 57-51 edge.

Joe Cook-Green notched 13 points to go with seven rebounds and three assists. Simmons added 11 points and seven boards off the bench after he got into all sorts of foul trouble in a scoreless outing the game before versus Dallas Christian. Simmons added nine boards, including five of the team's 16 offensive rebounds, resulting in 12 second-chance points.

The Rams owned the paint, 40-22 and turned the ball over only nine times, earning 15 more shot attempts than MSU. TXWES only had to come back because of a late Mustangs surge. Midwestern State took its first lead of the game with 46 seconds to play on an and-one basket plus free throw from Evan McCarthy. Before the three-point play, Texas Wesleyan led wire-to-wire, up by as many as 12 points late in the first half.

The win comes despite TXWES hitting 4-for-20 from downtown. It's the first victory for the Rams when they made less than five threes in a game for the first time since a a 72-70 victory over Jarvis Christian on November 25, 2017, 36 victories ago.

The Rams get a day off before battling with Paul Quinn Monday night at 7 p.m. at the Sid Richardson Center. That contest will lead into the first game of conference competition - Saturday November 21 against John Brown. The SAC will be a bloodbath this season - all 11 teams are above .500 in non-conference play still, with four (Southwestern Assemblies of God, Central Christian, Mid-America Christian and John Brown) still unbeaten.