HOBBS, NM - The University of the Southwest men's basketball team nearly held off nationally ranked Louisiana-Shreveport and lead the entire game by double digits (14 points) but unfortunately the Pilots used a 14-2 run with 4 minutes remaining to claim a 79-72 win on Thursday night.

Akeem Black and Rontrell Hills led USW with 13 points, while Derrick Hall scored a career-high 10 points for the Mustangs.

The Pilots out rebounded the Mustangs (52-40) and managed to end the game with a 6-5 advantage in second-chance points.

Jeff Garrett (29 points), Josh Stamps (15 points) and Tim Coleman (14 points) combined for 58 of LSUS points. After making 38 percent of their field goal attempts in the first half, the Pilots (10-6, 3-2 RRAC) came back to shoot 43 percent in the second half as they outscored USW 30-11 over the final 9 minutes.

"I thought we had a good defensive effort. We held them below their scoring average," USW head coach Timm Dixon said. "(We had) a few key breakdowns at time when we were not scoring and you cant really afford that. We were really off offensively the last 9 minutes of the game."

The Mustangs led the nationally ranked Pilots going into halftime 45-31 after both teams ended up shooting 38 percent in the first half. The Mustangs would extend the lead to 14 points in the second half, and held a lead until 5:25 when Josh Stamps hit a 3-point field goal to tie the game.

The mustangs promptly turned the ball over three straight times as the lead ballooned to eight points (68-76), however the Mustangs cut the lead to four with 0:30 seconds remaining, but couldn't not get any closer as the Pilots made free-throws to end the game.

The loss drops the Mustangs to 3-9 on the season and 1-4 RRAC. 

A slow start out of the gate proved to be too much for USW men's basketball team to overcome as it fell to No. 1 Louisiana State Alexandria Generals 96-69 on Saturday.

Josh Harris scored a team high 15 points for the Mustangs (3-9), who were playing without three out of their top five scorers for the 3rd straight game. Rontrell Hills, Derrick Hall and Josh Harris combined to make 59 percent (17-29) of their shots for the game.

The Generals (14-2) had a 51-31 advantage in rebounding as they combined for 23 second chance points against the smaller Mustangs.

The Generals took control early as they scored the five points of the game, however the Mustangs hit shots of their own, and the lead never grew larger by ten, as they trailed 39-49 at halftime.

The good news for the Mustangs is they held the Generals leading scorers under their scoring average, however the bad news is that they were never able to get closer than 8 points the rest of the game, and a 10-0 run in the last 1:30 of the game allowed the generals to reach their scoring average of 96 points per game, as the Mustangs fall 96-69.

The Mustangs return to action on Saturday Jan. 12 when they host a doubleheader with the women against Our Lady of the Lake at the Maddox Student Life Center. (2:00pm/4:00pm MT)