(TAYLOR HENRY/The Daily Campus)

The pressure was on Sunday afternoon when SMU took on Rice in Houston at the Tudor Field House.

Going into the game the Mustangs knew that they had to put a stop to Rice freshman Jessica Kuster. She was definitely the star of the game, and finished with 22 points, 17 rebounds, and six blocks.

During the first nine minutes, the game was tied at 14-14 and SMU had only allowed Kuster to score four points.

Her modesty didn’t last long however, she then fired back and had nine rebounds in the first half to put the Owls ahead 33-26 when the teams hit the locker room.

Rice was especially successful with their free throws during the first half, making 11 of 14, a significant difference compared to SMU’s 4 of 6.

The Owls only shot 30.3 percent from the field and made 10 of the 33 in the first half.

Christine Elliott led SMU with 12 points in the board for the game, with Raquel Christian in a close second with 10 points. Haley Day had another impressive game and brought in nine rebounds for the Mustangs.

Freshman Mallory Singleton made her debut for the season, and contributed eight points to the Mustangs effort.

In the second half the Owls continued on ahead for a short period until SMU had a 10-0 run thanks to a couple of baskets from Krystal Johnson and Samantha Mahnesmith with 11:46 on the clock and took the lead 42-39.

The Owls then fought back, and led 59-51 with 3:48 left to play just before a media time out.

Unfortunately after the Owls took this lead the Mustangs failed to over come it. Rice succeeded in scoring 10 more points in the final minutes of the game and won the game 69-60.

The Owls had the Mustangs in field goal percentages, with 36.1 and SMU with only 34 percent.

The free throw line was where SMU found themselves in trouble, and where Rice found lots of success. The Owls made 22 of 28 free throws and the Mustangs were only successful in 14 of their 21 attempts.

Sunday’s game was a disappointing loss coming off the Mustang’s exciting win against Tulane last Thursday. Tulane is currently ranked second in C-USA.

The loss put the Mustangs at 11-11 overall and 4-5 in conference play and Rice at 14-9 and 6-3 for the season.

The Mustangs next match up is scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m. in Moody Coliseum against Marshall who is currently 1-7 in conference play.