Following its win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Friday, the SMU women’s basketball team dropped an 80-48 loss to the No.4 Texas A&M Aggies Sunday afternoon.
The loss put the Mustangs at 2-5, while A&M continues to post a perfect 8-0 record. The Mustangs are now 0-3 away from Moody Coliseum.
The Mustangs hung with the Aggies last season, but surrendered in an 62-57 loss at Moody Coliseum.
In the 42nd meeting between the schools, the Aggies rose to a 24-17 advantage against the Mustangs, putting them on a three-game win streak. The last time SMU defeated A&M was during the 1998-99 season in a 78-75 victory in College Station.
Down by 25 points at the half, the Mustangs shot just 26 percent from the field and hit only 1-of-5 free throw attempts. Junior forward Brittany Gilliam made SMU’s only successful 3-pointer in six total team attemps.
The Aggies, heading into the locker room up 43-18, counted 19 points from Mustangs’ turnovers. Shooting 8-of-11 in free throws, Texas A&M managed to hold SMU to just four points with 13 minutes remaining for five minutes, while they went off on an 11-point run.
Scoring its last point of the half with 2:38 remaining, SMU allowed the Aggies to score seven straight points to end the half. Texas A&M’s Takia Starks and Danielle Gant, the team’s leading scorers, had double-figure scores in the first half.
For SMU, Gilliam, the team’s leading scorer, had seven first-half points.
Nearly doubling their score from the first half, SMU managed to come within just 18 points of Texas A&M, but could never tie the nationally ranked powerhouse. Gilliam had an impressive 18-point performance, tagging eight rebounds. Junior forward Delisha Wills was second in scoring for SMU, adding nine points and shooting 3-of-4 in field goals.
Struggling from the field, SMU hit just 17-of-56 field goal attempts and 3-of-16 three-pointers. Despite a poor performance from the line in the first half, the Mustangs redeemed themselves to go 11-of-17 from the line.
The Mustangs return to Moody Coliseum on Dec.14 to host the University of North Texas (5-3) followed by Dartmouth College (1-5) on Dec.16.
