WICHITA FALLS, Texas (February 13, 2025) – Playing in what was arguably its biggest game of the season in terms of postseason implications, The University of Texas Permian Basin women's basketball team approached it like a must-win game and pulled out a 73-70 victory at Midwestern University on Thursday evening at the D.L. Ligon Coliseum.

After seven ties and 11 lead changes in the first three quarters, the two teams entered the fourth quarter knotted up at 54 points apiece and split the first eight baskets of the final quarter.

With under two minutes remaining, a big 3-pointer by Morgan Helgesen assisted by Avalon Munoz gave UTPB a two-point lead (67-65), and then with 58 seconds left a driving layup by Taysha Rushton made it 69-65.

The fourth 3-pointer of the game by Alyssa Hutterer gave the Mustangs some life down by just one point (69-68) with 41.5 seconds left, but a difficult and contested 3-pointer by Munoz assisted by Rushton with just 15.6 seconds remaining was the dagger the Falcons needed.

A jumper by MSU with 5.2 seconds left extended the game, but Munoz was able to take 4.1 seconds off the clock retreating to the other side of the court before getting fouled with 1.1 seconds left. After missing her first free throw attempt, Munoz attempted to miss the second shot on purpose, but it rolled in anyway.

Inbounding the ball from the sideline near their own bench and down by three points with 1.1 seconds left, the Mustangs threw the ball across the court and out of bounds, effectively ending the game.

After 11 ties and 14 lead changes throughout the game, in the end, it was UTPB that made the winning plays as the Falcons made their last three shots of the game to take the win.

In addition to playing for 39 minutes, Rushton led all players with 26 points after shooting 9-for-19 from the field, 3-for-9 from three and 5-for-5 from the free throw line. It was the fourth-straight game scoring at least 22 points for Rushton.

Rushton, the third-leading scorer in the Lone Star Conference, was able to outplay MSU's Zarria Carter, the conference's leading scorer at 20.5 points per game coming in. Carter also led the conference in rebounds (11.1 rpg) and steals (2.3 spg) coming in, was the 10th-leading rebounder in NCAA Division II and was the 11th-leading scorer in the country. She finished with 20 points and nine boards against the Falcons on Thursday.

In addition to both players hitting big 3-pointers in the final two minutes, Helgesen added 14 points and eight rebounds while Munoz finished with 10 points and five assists for the second time in the last three games.

Head Coach Rae Boothe said after the win, "This was a big-time win that we very much needed. We had some big-time buckets from Taysha throughout the game and at crucial times. Av hit a huge and very contested three towards the end of the game. The best three of her career. Morgan played a solid game overall. It was a great team win in every way."

UTPB was 0-for-7 from three in the third quarter, but made half of its six 3-point attempts in the fourth quarter and also withstood a 63.6 percent (7-11) shooting effort from MSU in the final period.

The Falcons also finished 12-of-16 (75 percent) at the free throw line, their fifth time in the last six games shooting at least 75 percent from the line, while the Mustangs missed eight free throws (10-18).

Earlier in the game, UTPB started the game with a four-point play by Rushton on its second possession, followed by a 3-pointer by Makala Bingley and a layup by Munoz on its next two possessions to lead 9-0.

In all, there were five lead changes in the first quarter as MSU led 22-21, and then after three more lead changes in the second quarter, UTPB led 31-25 halfway through after a 6-0 run featuring a jumper by Helgesen, two free throws by Kamari Portalis and a layup by Munoz.

The Falcons took a 38-35 lead into the break after holding MSU to 5-for-15 (33.33 percent) shooting overall and 1-for-7 (14.3 percent) shooting from three in the second quarter and outscoring the Mustangs 17-13 in the period.

Knowing whichever team won the game would still have a chance to make the postseason, it was UTPB which earned the win and improved to 13-11 overall and 11-7 in the Lone Star Conference while MSU fell to 11-13 and 9-9. The Falcons are now a part of a four-team tie for second place in the West Division standings at 7-5, and are a part of a three-team tie for fifth place in the overall LSC standings with Eastern New Mexico University and Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

Now begins a brutally tough stretch for the Falcons, who will play at No. 13 nationally-ranked Lubbock Christian University on Saturday, February 15, followed by home games against No. 6 The University of Texas at Tyler (Feb. 20) and No. 2 Texas Woman's University (Feb. 22) next week.