Men’s Basketball

The Mustangs missed shooting guard Derrick Roberts in Saturday night’s 70-66 loss to Tulsa.

SMU fell to 1-5 in the conference but showed signs of life. After achieving their first Conference USA win of the season on Wednesday night, the Mustangs played some of their best basketball this season.

Brian Epps stepped up in Roberts’ absence, scoring 14 points in 28 minutes. Dez Willingham also added seven points and a steal.

But that wasn’t enough to come back from an eight-point halftime deficit.

Donatas Rackauskas did his part throughout the game and stepped up in the closing minutes.

Rackauskas scored 14 points in 15 minutes of play including a three-point shot with just 5.2 seconds left in the game to bring the Mustangs to within two, but Tulsa’s Mark Hill made four free throws in the last 31 seconds to seal the win for the Golden Hurricane.

The road doesn’t get much easier for the Mustangs as they face the UAB Blazers next Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Birmingham, Ala.

It will be a Blazer team that is coming off a win against East Carolina.

Women’s Basketball

The SMU women’s team did not fare well against Houston on Sunday afternoon, falling to the Cougars 81-65.

The Mustangs had four players with double-digit scoring: Janielle Dodds, Katy Cobb, Jillian Samuels and Brittany Gilliam. But that wasn’t enough to match a Houston team with four players managing double-doubles.

SMU was out-rebounded 68-40 and allowed 38 second-chance points from those rebounds compared to only six for the Mustangs.

The Mustangs entered halftime with a 37-30 lead but allowed 51 second-half points to the Cougars and could not keep up.

Samuels led SMU with 22 points, but that wasn’t enough to match the scoring of Houston.

The Cougars also got to the free-throw line 26 times in the second half compared to three trips for SMU.

The Mustangs will look to turn things around at home on Thursday night.

SMU will take on the UCF Golden Knights at 7 p.m. at Moody Coliseum.