SMU’s Ryan Harp takes it to the basket against UAB. (Lindsey Perkins)

The SMU men’s basketball team will look to stop its five game losing streak when it plays host to the UTEP Miners on Saturday night. SMU (8-18, 2-11) lost to UTEP (16-10, 7-6) in its first meeting on January 9th by a score of 79-66.

Both SMU and UTEP have played significantly better at home than on the road. For the Mustangs, seven of their eight wins have come at Moody Coliseum. For UTEP, only three of its 16 wins have come on the road.

Last time out, the Mustangs lost handily to the East Carolina Pirates by a score of 54-82. Senior Derrick Roberts and freshman Papa Dia both finished in double figures for the Mustangs.

A feature of the Mustangs offensive performance this season has been a balanced scoring attack. SMU has four players (Jon Killen, Bamba Fall, Papa Dia and Derrick Roberts) who are averaging at least 10 points per game. Killen leads the Mustangs in scoring with 12.4 points per game.

The Miners’ junior guard Stefon Jackson leads C-USA in scoring with an average of 24.2 points per game. This scoring average is good for sixth in the entire nation.

The Mustangs’ Roberts will likely be charged with limiting Jackson’s offensive production. Roberts has defended many of the conference’s top scorers, like Robert McKiver and Robert Vaden, on the perimeter.

Jackson hurts teams by getting perimeter defenders in foul trouble and knocking down free throws. Jackson has been to the charity stripe 265 times this season, making 74 percent of these shots.

Another challenge the Mustangs will face on Saturday night will be limiting turnovers. SMU turns the ball over on average 15.7 times per game and has a negative turnover margin.

Against the Pirates, the Mustangs turned the ball over 12 times in the first half. Consequenly, they were outscored by more than 20 points in the half. In the second half, SMU played the Pirates close in part because they turned the ball over only four times.

The Mustangs’ first game in March will take place on Saturday night at the Coliseum at 7.