SMU's late push pays off with 71-68 win over North Texas

SMU basketball wasn’t able to get over the hump against UNT on Sunday afternoon until Jaheim Hudson took over in the final minutes.

The Mustangs had pulled within one possession on several occasions, but weren’t able to break through. Then Hudson delivered a massive 3-pointer and another basket in past of an 11-0 run to give SMU the lead for good.

Score: SMU 71, UNT 68
Record: 17-7, 8-3
Next Game: at Tulane, 6 p.m. Thursday (ESPN+)

Player of the Game: All game the Mustangs had been close and it wasn’t until Ja’Heim Hudson got going. He made a pair of free throws, hit a 3-pointer and had another layup in the 11-0 run that put SMU up for good. He finished with 14 points, making a pair of 3s, with four rebounds and two assists. Nine of his 14 points came in the final seven minutes, 40 seconds of the game.

Leading Scorers: Hudson (14, four rebounds), Jalen Smith (14, 4-of-5 from 3), Chuck Harris (13), Zhuric Phelps (10).

Sequence of the Game: Every time SMU got within striking distance, UNT had the answer. Until it didn’t. The Mustangs reeled off 11-straight points to turn a five-point deficit into a six-point lead. Jaheim Hudson was in the middle of it. He hit a pair of big free throws to pull within one, then knocked down the 3-point shot that gave SMU its first lead since the first basket of the game. Hudson capped it off with a layup of a Zhuric Phelps pass, who had the other four points in the run. 

The rest of the story: UNT came out firing, making its first two 3-point attempts as part of an early 10-1 run to take a lead it would hold for most of the game. But the Mustangs never went away and even though they were never able to overcome for most of the game, they finally did in the final minutes. As good as UNT shot the ball from outside, the Mustangs were able to keep the game close. They never trailed by more than 11 and never gave up a basket while trailing by double digits. 

Notable Stat I: UNT shot 12-of-23 from the 3-point line. It was the fourth game this season the Mean Green have made 12 3-pointers as they shot 52.2% from beyond the arc and just 14-for-34 (41.2%) from inside the 3-point line.

Notable Stat II: After being out-rebounded by two in the first half, the Mustangs had a 20-12 advantage on the glass in the second half. That included an 8-3 advantage on offensive rebounds and 11-6 on second-chance points. All areas UNT had the advantage in the first half. Samuell Williamson had a lot to do with that, pulling down eight of his game-high 12 rebounds in the second half.

Notable Stat III: Jalen Smith nearly went 3-point shot for 3-point shot with UNT, going 4-for-5 from beyond the arc. That helped keep the Mustangs in the game early.

Final Word: This is the win the Mustangs have been missing this season. The victory keeps the Mustangs in a tie for fourth, just two games out of the top spot and puts a game between them and UNT as opposed to being tied if the game had gone the other way. There are still plenty of things to be unsure about this SMU team, but they showed some fight once again, made plays down the stretch, overcame a team that was shooting lights out from the 3-point line and did it without a player in Ricardo Wright who had been a key piece during the first three games of this now four-game winning streak. Even though it was not a Quad 1 or 2 win, it is still the signature win of this season and probably of the Rob Lanier era. If the Mustangs can build on this win going into a stretch of games at Tulane, home against Memphis, at No. 20 FAU, and at AAC leader USF it could be the turning point this program has been looking for.

Coach Lanier said: “They outplayed us for the majority of the game. We’ve talked a lot in recent weeks about trying to find a way to win different kinds of games, close games, games when your back is against the wall. Tonight was one of those opportunities where nothing was working and we found a way made a nice run towards the end and closed out a game that didn’t feel like it could go our way. There were some moments in the game that really, I was really proud of the guys and just some some great stuff happened in the game, after the game, that speak to the connectivity that exists inside of our team and some real growth with some of the individuals throughout the game that I was impressed with. It was a great, hard-fought win against a really, really good team.”