Outpaced, outrebounded at Houston, SMU Basketball misses out on resume-boosting win
SMU Basketball fell at Houston, 75-61, on Sunday at the Fertitta Center, where the No. 1 team in the American Athletic Conference calls home and appears set to capture another regular season conference title with three games to play. Boosted by an impressive rebounding effort and a lead that almost lasted the entire contest, No. 14 Houston grabbed a two-game lead over the Mustangs.
Point guard Kendric Davis led SMU in scoring 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the floor, but he went 0-for-4 from three-point range. The only other SMU Basketball player to hit double-digit scoring was guard Michael Weathers, who added 10 points. SMU shot 19 percent from three-point range, but it was Houston who was even more putrid, shooting 13 percent.
The game was not decided beyond the arc, but inside the paint. SMU Basketball allowed the Cougars to grab 49-rebounds, including 21 on the offensive glass. The Mustangs notched just 25 total rebounds. Houston did score just 18 points off those offensive rebounds. The Cougars also added 48 points in the paint.
Houston pulls away from SMU Basketball
SMU Basketball never led in the contest after Houston pulled away from the early 4-4 tie. Four Cougars scored in double figures, led by forward Fabian White’s 21 points and nine rebounds. Guard Jamal Shead added a double-double with 10 points and 11 assists. Forward Josh Carlton helped solidify Houston’s interior dominance with 18 points and eight rebounds.
In the first half, SMU Basketball scored a season low for points with 22 as the Cougars led by 15. The lead for the home team was down to 8 with 16:05 to play after a 13-6 SMU run, but it was all Cougars from there. Kelvin Sampson’s squad shut the door on SMU with a 7-0 run and cruised to the finish.
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SMU Basketball, now 20-7 overall and 11-4 in AAC play, sits ahead of Memphis in the standings as the Tigers lead Wichita State as of the time of publishing. SMU faces Cincinnati on Thursday at 6 p.m. CT and Tulane on Sunday at 2 p.m. CT with both games in Moody Coliseum.
SMU sat in the First Four Out for ESPN’s Joe Lunardi going into the Houston game. That makes the next two games and the AAC Tournament even more important for Tim Jankovich’s squad.
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