Mustangs ride Ross’ wings over Owls
Quinton Ross finished what Patrick Simpson started Saturday night when SMU defeated Rice 73-63 at Moody Coliseum. The Mustangs’ (13-12, 8-7) gritty defensive effort against the Owls (16-8, 8-6) helped them break a three-game losing streak and put them over .500 once again.
Simpson, an All-WAC freshman selection last season, gave SMU the offensive punch it needed to keep his team ahead of Rice. Simpson scored 20 of the Mustangs’ 42 first-half points.
“Patrick is playing really aggressive. He’s getting good looks and just knocking down shots,” Ross said. “It makes the game a lot easier for everyone else when he gets going like that.”
Simpson’s scoring outburst put SMU ahead 42-34 going into the break. Both teams got off to hot-shooting starts. SMU shot 59 percent to Rice’s 54 percent. The mutual marksmanship would not last long.
SMU made just four field goals in the second half. Simpson began to miss the same shots that kept them ahead, and SMU’s lead dissipated quickly. Rice came back to tie the game five minutes into the half.
A sense of urgency set into the Mustangs as their field goal shooting fell off dramatically. With freshman backcourt mate Bryan Hopkins in foul trouble and still in a late-season rut, Ross took over the game and began to take the ball to the basket.
While neither Rice nor SMU could make a basket, Ross was able to get to the foul line and convert.
“I came out, got to the line a lot and starting hitting my free throws and started getting into a rhythm,” Ross said. “Most of the time we can make things happen when we attack the basket like that.”
Ross exploded for 30 points in the game. While he was taking foul shots on one end, SMU’s defense turned up the pressure on high-powered Rice. The defense helped cover a souring offensive performance.
“Our guys worked hard defensively and it may have affected us offensively,” head coach Mike Dement said. “We were very good offensively in the first half. When we didn’t score in the first three or four possessions of the second half, I thought we got a little tight.”
Statistically, the match-up was laced with numbers in Rice’s favor. The Owls lead the conference in three-point percentage and rank second in total offense and field goal percentage.
With SMU struggling to defend the three-point line, the Mustangs seemed bound for a long night. Their defense stepped up and held Rice to three of 12 from long range. The Owls got a limited number of good looks, but were unable to punish SMU’s scrappy defense.
“I don’t doubt that they were tired, but I thought we worked harder to defend the three,” Dement said.
SMU took the lead when Ross scored on a lay-up with 1:42 left to play in the game. The Mustangs went up 61-59 and would not surrender the lead again.
The game came full circle when Simpson closed the game with a one-hand dunk at the buzzer, his only basket of the second half. He finished with 22 points and five rebounds. Ross added 11 rebounds to his 30 points, which was two points shy of his season high set on Nov. 11 against North Texas.
SMU now ranks sixth in the conference with games left at Boise State and Texas-El Paso and a home game against Louisiana Tech. Ross thought that the Mustangs’ outlook on the game reflected the attitude the team has about the remainder of the season.
“We’re not going to quit. We lost these three games in a row but we’ve still got the WAC tournament coming up,” Ross said. “Right now we’re just trying to play well and go into the WAC tournament hot.”
SMU travels to Idaho to play Boise State at 8 p.m. on Thursday.
