Owls too much for SMU (Photo By John Schreiber, The Daily Campus)

The SMU men’s basketball team closed out the regular season with a loss to Rice, 68-66, on Saturday in Houston.

Sophomore guard Dez Willingham led the Mustangs with 14 points, but it was nothing compared to Rice’s junior guard Morris Almond. Almond set a career high with 40 points against SMU. He also had nine rebounds.

SMU senior guard Bryan Hopkins was close behind Willingham with 12 points. Junior forward Devon Pearson led the team with nine rebounds.

SMU (12-15, 4-10 Conference USA) led 32-31 at the end of the first half, shooting 41 percent from the field.

Rice stormed back in the second half, and J.R. Harrison hit the go-ahead jumper with 2:05 left. It was the first field goal of the game for Harrison, who finished 1-of-9 from the field.

Almond, who was the only Rice player in double figures, shot 14-of-19 from the floor and was 10-of-11 from the foul line. His last point was a key free throw that extended Rice’s lead to four with 20 seconds left.

After that free throw, Willingham hit a three-pointer with 12 seconds left to get SMU within one. But the Mustangs wouldn’t get another shot after Willingham turned the ball over on SMU’s last possession.

The Mustangs, who have marketed Moody Coliseum as “Swat City,” did not block a single shot at Rice and were out-rebounded by Rice 39-35. Freshman center Bamba Fall hurt his back going for a rebound and was limited to 10 minutes of playing time. Fall’s status for the C-USA tournament is reportedly questionable.

The Mustangs face off with Rice again in the C-USA tournament opener in Memphis Wednesday at noon. A victory would give the Mustangs a rematch with No. 2 seed UAB at noon on Thursday. SMU will be the No. 10 seed in the 2006 Conference USA Men’s Basketball Championship, March 8 through March 11 at FedExForum in Memphis, Tenn.

Hopkins Named All C-USA

Senior guard Bryan Hopkins was named third team all Conference-USA yesterday. Hopkins is the Mustangs leading scorer, averaging 14.8 points per game. He also leads the team in assists and turnovers. For the season, Hopkins has shot 40 percent overall, and 36 percent for three-pointers. He has had 50 steals so far this season for SMU.

Hopkins finished league play tied for fifth in scoring, second in steals (2.57), sixth in 3FGM (2.14) and 11th in assists (3.29).

Rice’s junior guard Morris Almond, who scored a career-high 40 points against the Mustangs on Saturday, was named first team all Conference USA.