WICHITA FALLS, Texas – McMurry University men's basketball – playing its sixth-consecutive road game to open the season – lost a 77-49 decision at Midwestern State University at the D.L. Ligon Coliseum.
 
The loss was the War Hawks' fourth in a row, as the team fell to 2-4 overall. The Mustangs improved to 5-3.
 
MSU led at the intermission, 34-27. But the War Hawks held the upper hand early, when Blake Cochran canned the first of his eventual four, three-point buckets at the 15:15 juncture. However, a 9-0 run by MSU helped the hosts overtake McMurry and lead, 16-11.
 
Another trey by Cochran stemmed the Mustangs' run and cut the margin to 16-14 with 10:02 remaining until the half.
 
Cochran was a perfect 5-5 from the field and 3-of-3 from beyond the arc in the opening period, booking 13 points despite picking up three fouls in the stanza.
 
"We played an inspired first half, McM head coach Clif Carroll said.  "We competed physically on every play and really held the upper hand for most of the first half. Eventually their length and athleticism took hold.  I was very encouraged by our play in the first half and hope that we can build off of it and translate that to the rest of the season.
 
"Blake Cochran had another good shooting night. I hope he can continue to grow his confidence and be a difference maker in the future. Connor (Robinson) again showed why he is one of the toughest players in college basketball. He earned a tough seven rebounds and 12 points."

Cochran picked up his fourth personal foul less than two minutes into the second half. Not coincidentally, the Mustangs began to pull away with McM's top offensive threat in the game on the bench. McM trailed by 11 – 38-27 – when Cochran left the game with foul No. 4 at the 18:24 mark of the second and it was out-scored 13-5 over the next eight minutes, as well as 43-22 in the final period.
 
Cochran would finish the night with 16 points and a 6-of-9 shooting effort from the field. He went 4-for-5 from long distance in his 24 minutes of court time.
 
After a slow start, the War Hawks' leading scorer – Connor Robinson – began to find some openings against the larger Mustang post players. Robinson finished with 12 points, hitting 5-of-12 from the floor, and a team-leading seven rebounds.
 
Gabriel Chacon added nine points to the McMurry coffers.
 
McM was the victim of its own miscues, committing 21 turnovers. The War Hawks were held to 39 percent shooting (18-46) from the field. Conversely, MSU made good on better than 53 percent of its attempts (31-58).  The Mustangs also held a decided advantage on the glass, out-rebounding McMurry by a 41-24 margin (and limiting the War Hawks to just two offensive boards).
 
Carroll – with four regulars in his rotation on the shelf versus Midwestern State – saw his young War Hawks out-manned in bench scoring by 37-to-8 points.