Sophomore guard Raven Short delivers the ball to the SMU basket during Sunday afternoon’s game against Rice in Moody Coliseum. (Spencer J Eggers/The Daily Campus)

The SMU women’s basketball team is headed to west Texas Thursday night to take on the undefeated University of Texas at El Paso Miners.

The Mustangs, who are coming off of a tough loss this past Sunday at home to Rice, are looking to hand the Miners their first loss in conference play this season, but a win against them won’t come easy.

“They’re playing very good basketball,” Coach Rhonda Rompola said after the game against Rice on Sunday. “There’s a reason why they’re undefeated,” she added.

The Miners are 24-2 for the season and 13-0 in conference play.

The lady Mustangs are going to need to avoid hitting another “scoring drought,” which Coach Rompola cited as one of their major downfalls last game.

“We just didn’t have anyone step up to put the ball in the hole,” she said describing the final minutes of the Rice game, when the Mustangs rallied, but came up short.

Their technical game will have to be tighter than normal.

This means fewer turnovers on in-bounds plays — SMU had 13 total last game. Also, more boxing out under the basket,especially during free throws, will help out the Mustangs.

SMU had 21 defensive rebounds against Rice ­— a decent figure as long as they are able to capitalize and produce points off of the board.

UTEP is stacked with talented players.

Senior Gloria Brown and sophomore Kayla Thornton will be two to watch out for.

Brown has averaged 11.6 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, all while shooting nearly 80 percent from the line.

Thornton is similarly dangerous with 9.8 points and seven rebounds per game.

As a team, the Miners are 41 percent from the field, a comparable figure to SMU’s 38.5 percent.

UTEP is decent from the three — shooting 29.7 percent beyond the arc.

SMU is 31.2 percent from the perimeter for the season. This is an impressive stat for a team without many three-point shooters.

Despite the Mustang’s strong appearance on paper, their figures have not produced wins on the scoreboard.

“Bottom line is we’ve got to find ways to put the ball in the hole,” Rompola said. “We’re getting shots, we’ve just got to finish.”

Tip off is set for Thursday at 8 p.m. at UTEP.