The Mustangs will look for their first win against Conference USA foe Marshall when they travel to face the Thundering Herd tonight at 6 p.m.
Marshall won the last three meetings, two of them at Moody Coliseum, by a combined seven points. Last season, the Thundering Herd nailed a last-second 3-pointer and emerged with a 75-74 victory at Moody.
SMU (6-9, 1-2 Conference USA) is 0-5 in road games this season and has won only two away games in the last two years. The Thundering Herd (8-9, 1-2) is 7-1 in home games, but they are on a two-game losing streak.
The game can be heard on KAAM 770 AM and tracked online at SMUMustangs.com.
Tonight’s matchup features a battle of two freshmen guards who lead their teams in scoring. SMU’s Paul McCoy averages 13.7 points a game, while Marshall’s Damier Pitts registers 11.4 points. McCoy also averages an unusually high 5.7 rebounds as the team’s point guard. He scored 32 points in a late-December victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, which was a season-high this year for SMU.
Junior Derek Williams will join McCoy in the Mustangs’ starting backcourt. The duo combined for nearly half of SMU’s points in Saturday’s 60-51 win against Tulane. Williams scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half and connected on 2-of-3 3-point attempts.
Georgia Tech transfer Mouhammad Faye, a forward who gained his eligibility in mid-December, hit only 1-of-6 shots for eight points against Tulane, but he averages 10.5 points this season.
Senior Bamba Fall leads the team in rebounds (7.8 a game) and blocks (2.8 a game). Redshirt freshman Robert Nyakundi has been a spark off the bench, connecting on 40 percent of his 3-point attempts. He averages 5.1 points and 2.7 rebounds.
For Marshall, junior Tyler Wilkerson scores 11.1 points and leads the team with 6.1 rebounds.
If SMU hopes to even its conference record, it must continue to play smothering defense. The Mustangs allowed a season-low 51 points against Tulane on Saturday, which was 14 points lower than their season defensive average. Thanks largely to Fall, SMU has out-blocked its opponents 71-33 this season.
“Defense is always going to be our focal point,” said Williams after the team’s victory over Tulane. “Our offense feeds off our defense. As long as we’re doing well defensively, we’ll be in the game.”
