The extended minutes of playing with injuries finally caught up with the Mustangs last night, as they couldn’t get any offense going early. The Mustangs dropped another close game at home last night, losing to Tulsa 67-60.
SMU got to seven points easily enough, but it was the eighth and ninth points that eluded the Mustangs. Devon Pearson’s jumper with 15:47 left in the first half tied the game at seven, but it wasn’t until the 9:50 mark that Dez Willingham hit two free throws to make the score 15-9.
The 10th point wasn’t much easier to get either. The Mustangs went another five minutes until Ike Ofoegbu made a free throw to make the score 23-10. In the span of time that it took SMU to score three points, the Golden Hurricane scored 16 points.
“Bad thing was we only had 19 points at the half, the good thing was we were only down 10,” said Doherty. The Mustangs entered the locker room down 29-19.
The only truly notable statistic for the Mustangs in the first half was technical fouls.
With 11:37 left in the first half head coach Matt Doherty got a technical while arguing with the referee over a foul that was not called on an Ofoegbu shot.
“I was mad, obviously I didn’t agree with the calls,” said Doherty. “I think I have to address that and in the process try to wake our team up as well.”
Ofoegbu continued to be the key component to the Mustangs’ near success in the past few games.
The problem for SMU has been finishing games late and getting balanced scoring.
Last night the Mustangs were within 10 points for the final five minutes of the game, but could not close the gap to fewer than six.
“Frustrating, frustration again,” said Doherty. “I’m proud of the guys for not giving in, they could have given up when we were stuck on seven points.”
Leading the team with 29 points and seven rebounds, Ofoegbu’s streak of consecutive games with a double-double ended just three rebounds short.
But rebounds were a tough thing to come by for the entire SMU team. Tulsa out-rebounded the Mustangs 39-24. Doherty contributed the high rebounding numbers for the Golden Hurricane to the lack of made shots by the Mustangs. Tulsa ended the game with 27 defensive rebounds.
Ofoegbu’s offense has seen a different level over the past two games, scoring 30 points against Rice and 29 points last night against Tulsa.
“We’re short on bodies, so coach said everybody’s got to pick it up,” said Ofoegbu. “And coach has had the confidence in me.”
Ofoegbu’s confidence has seemingly grown in himself. He averaged just 3.8 points a game last season and 3 rebounds.
This season, those numbers have risen to 13.8 points a game and 7.7 rebounds a game, which makes Ofoegbu the second-leading rebounder in Conference USA.
The last stop for the Mustangs does not get any easier. The Mustangs will complete the regular season Saturday against the No. 7 Memphis Tigers. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. at Moody Coliseum.