Men’s, women’s hoops win
The SMU men’s and women’s basketball team started their season with a bang this past weekend. The Lady Mustangs had two games, against Sam Houston State and Maine, and won them both with final scores of 55-45 and 58-44.
The men’s team had only one game on Friday night against UT-Tyler, and they came away with the victory as well, 76-61.
Friday night’s double-header was a night of first time events.
For Jimmy Tubbs, the men’s head coach, it was his first college coaching victory as a head coach. The men’s team came out firing for their new coach and UT-Tyler was outplayed from the beginning. Four Mustangs scored in the double digits, led by junior guard Bryan Hopkins with 21.
The Mustangs showed positive signs of the things that Coach Tubbs is trying to instill in his young team. Much of the offense was a run and gun style, spreading the court and moving the ball fast. With 5:22 left, the Mustangs had their biggest lead of the game, with a 69-51 advantage. Most of those points came from fast break points and interior baskets.
UT-Tyler never gave up, constantly putting pressure on the Mustangs, and forcing them to play hard on both sides of the court. A good sign for Tubbs and his Mustangs was their ability to finally put away the Patriots late in the game.
SMU started playing hard from the start, but what is even more impressive is that they finished the game the same way.
Other notable performances were Devin Pearson, Patrick Simpson, Justin Isham and Eric Castro.
Pearson, a sophomore, had a fantastic game with 17 points, four rebounds, five blocks, three assists and three steals. Simpson and Isham also were in the double digits with 11 and 10 points respectively, while Castro scored nine points and hauled in nine boards.
The men also won last night’s away contest against Montana State 69-61 in overtime to improve to 2-0.
The women’s basketball team won both of their games over the weekend by 10 points or more each game. The real story, however, was senior Juli Colli. The 5-foot 10-inch senior made her first collegiate start in two years after missing the 2002-03 season due to NCAA transfer rules and last year after tearing her ACL during pre-season.
Colli played the game like nothing has changed, scoring nine points and adding three steals. Colli also nailed the first basket of the year for the Lady Mustangs, a three-pointer at the 18:49 mark.
Hustling all weekend, the SMU women’s basketball team improved their record to 2-0. Both games were hard fought but in the end the better team wanted it more. The key player of the weekend for SMU was 2004 team MVP Sarah Davis. The junior post was earlier named to the pre-season All-WAC second team, and she played like it this weekend. Over the two-game stretch, she scored 22 points and pulled down 17 rebounds. Along with her stats, Davis brought leadership and experience into the games and as a result, the team came away with two wins.
On Saturday, the Lady Mustangs received some bad news, when Colli, who had a standout performance this weekend, broke her hand in practice. Colli is out indefinitely.
The lady Mustangs next host the SMU Hoops for the Cure Classic this Friday and Saturday at Moody Coliseum. SMU will play Mercer at 7 p.m. All proceeds from the tournament benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer Research.
