SMU Post Alice Severin takes a jump shot against the University of Texas at El Paso, Jan. 15 at Moody Coliseum.

The No. 3 ranked SMU women’s basketball team will host the No. 2 East Carolina Pirates on Saturday evening at 5 p.m. in Moody Coliseum. Like the rest of the season remaining, this will be a conference game for the Mustangs.

Both teams will have a stake in Conference USA ranking riding on this game. If the Mustangs pull out the victory, they will move to No. 2 in the rankings but if they lose, they could drop to fourth. ECU could possibly move into the No. 1 ranking with a win.

In the 2009 season, the Mustangs hosted ECU and were victorious, 80-73. That game was an impressive one for two players the team still looks to this season: seniors Brittany Gilliam and Jillian Samuels. Both players scored in the double digits and had crucial steals and rebounds. Gilliam was the C-USA player of the week at the time of the 2009 match up.

This season, the two teams have not competed against any of the same C-USA teams thus far.

The only team that both SMU and ECU have competed against has been Hampton University, which both SMU and ECU defeated.

 ECU is currently ranked ahead of SMU and has had only one conference loss, giving them the seat behind the University of Alabama-Birmingham. UAB is the only conference loss for SMU this season.

Overall, ECU has a record of 15 wins and 3 losses. SMU has a record of 13 wins and 4 losses.

After this weekend, the Mustangs will travel to Houston to play Rice University on the Jan. 28 and Houston on the Jan. 30.