SMU’s Jillian Samuels looks for her next move in the game against East Carolina last Friday night in Moody. (Daneya Ammon)
The SMU women’s basketball team began a four-game homestand this weekend against East Carolina on Friday night and Marshall on Sunday afternoon.
The Mustangs lost 70-58 Friday night against the East Carolina Lady Pirate because of what head coach Rhonda Rompola called a lack of energy and intensity.
The beginning of the first half was close with SMU and ECU swapping the lead six times. With 5:51 left in the first half, junior Sharee Shepherd made a jumper for two points to give the Mustangs a 20-19 lead – but that would be the last lead of the night for SMU. The Lady Pirates went on a tear, outscoring SMU 18-2 in the remainder of the first half.
The Mustangs came out strong in the second half, closing the lead to 10 in the first five minutes. SMU outscored ECU in the second half 36-33 thanks to a great effort by Shepherd on both ends of the court. It wasn’t enough, though, and ECU left Moody Coliseum with the win.
Sunday’s game against Marshall was a completely different story. Junior Janielle Dodds said the team felt a change in gears and focused more on defense and kept its energy up.
“The difference between the two games was our intensity,” Dodds said. “We can’t just play hard during the first five minutes of each half.”
SMU came out strong from the get-go, going up 8-2 before the first timeout called by Marshall. The Mustangs were all over the hustle plays in the first half and converted steals and defensive stops into points on the other end of the floor.
“Defense got us going,” said Rompola. “We picked up the ‘D’ like the first game of the season. We couldn’t capitalize last game on break-point chances when we had them.”
Rompola also said the Lady Mustangs had more confidence on Sunday against Marshall, a team that is not as quick as East Carolina.
“The girls felt like they could ‘D’-up on Marshall. We were more aggressive today because our players believed,” Rompola said.
Dodds said there was another big change in the game on Sunday.
“The crowd helps a lot,” she said. “The crowd pumps us up, and when we play well we pump up the crowd.”
On Friday night, there were 656 people in the stands. Sunday afternoon, almost 837 fans cheered the Lady Mustangs on to victory.
Young girls were in the stands with hot pink and neon yellow signs showing their support for SMU.
The Mustangs came out of halftime with a 29-22 lead, but they didn’t ease up and let Marshall back in the game. SMU’s smallest lead of the second half was six points at the 9:24 mark, but the Mustangs doubled that lead in two minutes thanks to hard work on the boards by Dodds and freshman Alice Severin. Dodds was SMU’s high scorer with 14 points, and Severin led the team with eight rebounds.
Rompola hopes a game like Sunday’s can light a spark for the Mustangs.
“A performance like today can give our kids confidence,” she said. “We are at our best when we are running the ball and taking good shots.”
The Mustangs will finish off the homestand this week playing on Thursday night and Saturday afternoon.
