Sophomore guard Jeremiah Samarrippas runs the ball up court during a Spring 2011 season game against Rice University in Moody Coliseum. (Spencer J Eggers/The Daily Campus)

SMU lost at Rice on Saturday in a low-scoring game that ended 39-43. The Mustang’s defense looked sharp, while their offense put up a season low for scoring.

The Mustangs now move to 11-14, with a conference record of 2-8. Meanwhile, Rice improved to 15-11, with a C-USA record of 6-5.

The story of this loss for the Mustangs came down to another game where SMU’s offense didn’t show up. In their last five games, SMU has scored 39, 68, 52, 43 and 60.

With the exception of scoring 68 in the home win against TCU, the rest of these games have been losses.

The Mustangs are No. 11 out of the 12 Conference USA teams in scoring, although they are second in scoring defense. In Saturday night’s loss, they shot 32.5 percent from the field, making just 13 shots on 40 attempts.

For SMU, Shawn Williams led the Mustangs with 11 points and eight rebounds along with two blocks. Robert Nyakundi finished with nine points, five boards and five steals. Rodney Clinkscales had a solid game for the Mustangs, scoring nine points by going 3-4 from behind the arc.

Rice had nice contributions from forward Arsalan Kazemi and guard Tamir Jackson. Kazemi finished the game with a double-double, scoring 11 and rebounding 10, and also adding five steals. Jackson, the highest scorer of either team, had 12 points, four rebounds and four assists.

SMU was without Jeremiah Samarrippas on Saturday, who sprained his ankle at practice on Friday. The loss of their starting point guard certainly hurt the Mustangs, who had just 11 assists total in the game.

Head coach Matt Doherty addressed not having Samarrippas in a postgame interview, and said that not having their point guard definitely had an effect on the offense.

Doherty said that he was also “disappointed in the concentration and focus of a couple of guys on the team…I need guys like Robert [Nyakundi] to step up and play better.” Nyakundi’s nine points were well short of his 15-point average this season.

The Mustangs will come back to Moody to face UAB on Wednesday at 7 p.m.