Wolf Pack devours Lady Mustangs

Sophomore Shonte Roberts scored a career-high 25 points and suffered a busted lip, all to no avail. SMU lost to Nevada 70-59 Thursday night. The Mustangs (12-10, 6-6) have now lost four of their last five, while Nevada (9-13, 2-10) now has a two-game win streak and won its first road game of the season.

SMU’s starters combined to go only 5-33 from the field and scored only 16 points.

“Our starters had a horrible game,” head coach Rhonda Rompola said. “I was extremely disappointed in our starters. Our bench scored 49 points. They kept us in this ball game.”

Despite the cold shooting, SMU went into the half down by only three points (33-30).

In the second half, SMU’s shooting only worsened. The Mustangs shot 34 percent in the second half, while Nevada continued to make nearly 50 percent of its attempts.

Nevada’s poor record may have caused the Mustangs to take the game a little less seriously than they should have.

“This team is not indicative of the record they have,” Rompola said. “Their play is so much better than their record.”

Roberts and senior guard Kenni Patton (17 points) both produced big numbers off the bench in order to try and compensate for the lack of production from the starters. Roberts made nine of her 12 field goal attempts and 7-10 free throws.

“You can tell when Rob’s going to have a good game,” Rompola said. “When she’s ready and she’s fired up, she plays her best basketball.”

Senior guard Andrea Cossey scored a season-low two points and made only one of nine shots. Senior post Kaci Alexander went without a field goal for the entire game. She failed to score in only 20 minutes of play.

The poor shooting caused problems in other aspects of SMU’s game plan. When the shots stop falling, the Mustangs were not able to compensate. They were unable to set up their defense and were out-rebounded 42-32.

“When you get down on yourself, things just keep getting worse,” Rompola said. “We could never get that run.”

SMU was down by six points with 1:45 left in the first half when the Wolf Pack got an uncontested lay-up off of an SMU turnover. The eight-point lead was too much for SMU to overcome.

The Mustangs now lay in the middle of the WAC as the season nears its ending. The team’s goal was to have the first day of the WAC Tournament off, an honor bestowed on the top teams. The first day bye will be a difficulty, but SMU’s attention must now focus on fixing the problems that have caused the losses to accumulate.

“When we’re not hitting shots we better have a little more heart and rebound,” Rompola said. “They can’t get down on themselves, they’re going to have to keep fighting. They’re going to have to find that fight.”

Four Wolf Pack players scored in double figures, and Amber Young had 11 points and 12 rebounds.

The Mustangs face Fresno State (12-10, 6-6) Saturday afternoon beginning at 2:00 p.m. at Moody Coliseum. The Bulldogs are coming off an 87-62 defeat to No. 10 Louisiana Tech Thursday night.

Thumbs Up: Kenni Patton showed up with 17 points. Patton has a tendency to get lost in the shuffle.

Thumbs down: All five SMU starters. No production means no winning.

Player of the Game: Shonte Roberts and her career-high 25 points almost gave SMU a chance.