The SMU women’s basketball team brought home a victory after defeating the Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans on their home court Monday night advancing to a 2-0 start to the season.

Within the first four minutes of the game the Trojans were calling all the shots with a 7-2 lead. However, SMU didn’t wait long before they made their presence known on the court, going 12-0 to take a first half lead of 14-7. Despite starting out 1-of-7 in field goals, the Mustangs were able to connect 5-of-8 field goals. It wasn’t until the 2:00 mark of the first half that the Trojans took over with a 13-4 run to end the first half on top.

With the close of the first half SMU connected on 10-of-16 shots during the last 16 minutes to finish with a total of 11-of-26 connecting shots. Three Mustangs led the team in the first half scoring seven points each.

Arkansas-Little Rock was 15 of 30 from the field over the first 20 minutes after putting up five field goals, including a 3-pointer in last 3:25 of the half to seal off their lead for halftime.

When the whistle blew to start the second half, UALR extended its lead over the Mustangs by nine points, 41-32, during the first four minutes of play. However, this wasn’t enough to hold back SMU and the Mustang Stampede went on a run to score 13 unanswered points to take the lead with 12:25 left in the game.

As the scoreboard displayed the Mustangs on top 45-41, the Trojans called a pair of timeouts within the next two minutes. The Trojans weren’t able slow down the Mustangs as they extended their run to 19-0 leading 51-41 until UALR’s Janette Merriex hit a 3-pointer with 8:46 left on the clock.

Victory was in sight for the Mustangs while they held on to the lead during the stretch by shooting 8-for-8 at the free throw line in the final four minutes. The Trojans remained unable to get within seven points of SMU to finish the ball game 69-60.

The Mustangs shot 53.8 percent from the field during the second half to keep the Trojans at a 37.5 percent clip.

Junior guard Alisha Filmore led the Mustangs with 15 points during the game with Akil Simpson not far behind with 13 points and six rebounds. During just her second game with SMU after transferring two years ago, Kristin Hernandez put 11 points on the board. Post Christine Elliott left UALR with eight points and a team-high nine rebounds.

SMU returns home on Thursday to take on the TCU Horned Frogs at 7 p.m. The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee will sponsor a Pack the House initiative and provide hamburgers by Hamburger Man for those in attendance.