The SMU Men’s Basketball team (10-13, 2-7) fell 59-52 to the University of Central Florida Knights (17-6, 6-3) on Saturday in Moody Coliseum, despite a career high effort by Jalen Jones with 16 points. Robert Nyakundi, coming off of a hamstring injury, added 15 points to the board, while no other Mustang was able to score more than five points.

On the other end of the floor, Marcus Jordan, son of former NBA legend Michael Jordan, scored a game high 17 points for the Knights, while Isaiah Sykes and Tristan Spurlock added 15 points a piece.

The Knights dominated the glass, doubling SMU’s offensive rebounds throughout the night (14-7), which SMU’s coach, Matt Doherty, cited as one of their major downfalls in the game.”They are big and strong, and at the end of the day, the second chance points I felt really hurt us.”

This ended up costing the Mustangs 12 points, and ultimately the game, in spite of a great overall defensive effort throughout the night.

“It’s tough to play well and yet still lose,” Doherty said.

Their lack of productivity on the offensive end was also to blame.

“We’ve got to come together as a team and fight this,” Jalen Jones said. “You can’t get rattled.”

The team shot 37.8 percent from the field, falling short of their season average of 42.8 percent.

Adding to their offensive woes, the Mustangs committed nine turnovers in the game.

The Mustangs plan to continue to get better in practice as they look forward to their upcoming matchup against their arch-rival, the TCU Horned Frogs (13-9) this Wednesday at home.

“There’s still a lot of season left,” Coach Doherty said. “We’ve played well, we’ve just got to keep trying to get better and better and hopefully the wins will come.”

Tip-off is set for this Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 7 p.m. in Moody Coliseum.

Tickets can be purchased online at smumustangs.com/tickets.