SMU forward Papa Dia fights for a rebound against an opposing player from the Marshall Thundering Herd. (MICHAEL DANSER/The Daily Campus)

The SMU men’s basketball team finished its regular season with seven conference wins, the most its had since joining Conference USA in the 2005-06 season.

However, none of that mattered in the C-USA tournament, and the Mustangs fell in the first round, 69-53.

SMU entered the tournament as the No. 8 seed and played the No. 9 seed, the University of Central Florida, on Wednesday, March 10 at the Bank of Oklahoma Center in Tulsa. The Mustangs and the Knights had already met once this season Jan. 27, when SMU handled UCF with ease, winning 65-43.

Sophomore Justin Haynes got the Mustangs off to a quick start when he nailed a three-pointer for the first points of the game. SMU managed to stretch the lead to seven, 18-11, midway through the first half. At this point, the Knights came to life and clawed their way back, eventually taking the lead, 21-20, with eight minutes remaining.

Sophomore Robert Nyakundi momentarily gave the lead back to SMU with a layup, but the Knights quickly regained the lead with their next basket and kept it for the remainder of the game.

Despite giving up the lead to UCF, the Mustangs were still in contention coming out of the locker room after halftime, trailing by two, 34-32. However, less than three minutes into the second half, UCF had widened their lead to nine, 41-32. The Mustangs could not mount a rally from that point on—the closest they came was seven points, 43-36.

Senior Derek Williams led the Mustangs in scoring with 15 points. He was the only SMU player to score in double digits. Freshman Rodney Clinkscales, senior Mouhammad Faye and Haynes all scored nine points. Junior Papa Dia chipped in with seven points and five rebounds, but fouled out with a little less than five minutes remaining.

Both teams shot well from the field; SMU made 51.4 percent of their shots, and UCF did even better at 54.2 percent. The largest differential was in the assist to turnover ratio. The Mustangs dished out only 11 assists and turned the ball over 16 times. The Knights had 23 assists to just 12 turnovers.

UCF moved on to the second round and was defeated by the No. 1 seed, the University of Texas at El Paso. The University of Houston was the surprise of the tournament, upsetting both No. 2 University of Memphis and UTEP, claiming the C-USA tournament crown.

Both UTEP and Houston will represent C-USA in the NCAA tournament. Houston is No. 13 in the Midwest bracket while UTEP is No. 12 in the West bracket. The NCAA tournament begins on March 16.