Brittany Gilliam drives the ball down the court in the Mustangs’ game against the University of Arkansas. (MICHAEL DANSER/The Daily Campus)

With a difference of just two points, the SMU women’s basketball team would still be on a perfect season heading into Wednesday’s game against the University of North Texas. Still, the Mustangs, 5-1, are off to their best start in over 15 years.

Last Tuesday SMU faced off against Eastern Illinois University at home. The Mustangs, coming off wins against the University of Arkansas and the University of New Orleans, came into the game full of confidence and still undefeated.

The only suspense in the game came in the first four minutes, when the Mustangs held a slim lead over the Panthers, 8-7. However, Eastern Illinois could not contain the SMU offense for long, and the Mustangs burst the game wide open with a 14-2 run that stretched the lead, 22-9.

After the Panthers trimmed the lead to 22-15, SMU went on another run, scoring 15 of the next 17 points to push the lead to 20 points, 37-17. From that point on, the Mustangs’ lead did not dip below 19 points the rest of the game.

The key to the game was SMU’s precision shooting from all over the floor. The Mustangs shot a respectable 45.8 percent from the field and did almost as well from behind the arc, shooting 45.5 percent. That is in stark contrast to Eastern Illinois, which shot 33.3 percent from the floor and only made a single 3-point shot the entire game.

Junior Raquel Christian, who transferred from Texas Tech, led all Mustangs with 13 points. Sophomore Christian Elliott and senior Brittany Gilliam had 12 points a piece, and junior Haley Day had 10 points to go along with a team-high seven rebounds.

This past weekend, the Mustangs hosted the SMU Hoops for the Cure tournament at Moody Coliseum. Their first opponent was Hampton University, whom the Mustangs have never played against before.

However, that did not stop SMU from staking out an early lead against the Pirates, 16-7. Hampton was not going down without a fight though and fought back to be within one point of the Mustangs, 18-17. But, SMU continued to play their tough defense and slowly built their lead back up, so that at the half, the Mustangs were in control, 39-26.

SMU stormed out of the locker room in the second half with a 23-10 run that saw their lead grow to 26 points, 62-36. The Pirates tried to surge back with high percentage shooting from behind the 3-point line, but the lead proved too large and SMU walked away with another win, their fifth of the season and still undefeated.

Gilliam led all players with 20 points and nine rebounds, leaving her one short of a double-double. Four other Mustangs also broke double digits in scoring to make the Mustangs’ victory a complete team effort.

Senior Jillian Samuels scored 13 points, 10 from the free throw line, and helped crack down defensively for SMU with three steals. Elliott and Day had 13 and 10 points respectively, and both grabbed seven rebounds. Freshman Alisha Filmore also pitched in with 10 points.

The championship game of the Hoops for the Cure tournament featured the Mustangs against the Boston College Eagles at Moody on Nov. 28. The two teams had met only once before with the Eagles taking the lone victory back in 2002.

The Eagles proved to be the biggest test of the Mustangs’ season thus far, and SMU fell just short against Boston College, 69-68. SMU actually managed to cut their lead to one several times but failed to get over the hump and take the lead. With two seconds left, Samuels hit a 3-pointer to cut the Eagles’ lead to one, but time expired before SMU could score again.

Gilliam led all Mustangs with 22 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. Elliott was second for SMU with 17 points and six rebounds. Seniors Alice Severin and Samuels also scored in double digits, with 10 and 11 points, respectively.

Unfortunately, SMU could not stop the interior play of Carolyn Swords or the perimeter shooting of Mickel Picco. Swords had 20 points and 13 rebounds for the Eagles, and Picco had 25 points and hit six of 11 shots from behind the arc.

For their next game, the Mustangs will take a short trip up to Denton to take on the University of North Texas on Dec. 2.

The Mean Green, 3-4, started off the season poorly with three straight losses but has since rebounded. They won their last game against the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

If SMU wants to rebound from their close loss against Boston College, the first thing they will have to do is put the game out of their heads. After all, they are still 5-1 and off to the best start in 15 years.