SMU guard Alisha Filmore on defense against Rice Friday night at Moody Coliseum. SMU won the game 73 (MICHAEL DOOLEY/The Daily Campus)

The SMU women’s basketball team (16-8, 6-5 conference) had an opportunity to sweep their rivals from Houston and gain ground in the conference this past weekend, but were foiled by the University of Houston (13-11, 7-4 conference) on Sunday, forcing the Mustangs to settle for the split.
 

The weekend started out strong for the Mustangs, when they defeated Rice University (11-13, 5-6 conference), 73-54, on Friday, Jan. 12. Seniors Brittany Gilliam and Alice Severin led the way for SMU; Gilliam recorded 24 points while Severin had her first double-double of the season with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
 

The Owls managed to keep the score close for much of the first half, but their defense was eventually overpowered by the Mustangs and with five minutes remaining, SMU tore through the Owls for a 12-3 run that put the Mustangs in the lead going into the locker room, 31-17.
 

SMU managed to stretch the lead to 19 points at the start of the second half, 37-18, for their largest lead. At that point, the Mustangs seemed to let down their guard and the Owls tried to take advantage, cutting the lead down to nine points twice in the game. Fortunately, the Mustangs were near perfect from the free throw line to seal the game.
 

The Mustangs carried their momentum into the first half of their game against the University of Houston on Sunday, Feb. 14, but were unable to sustain their intensity and eventually lost, 73-67,
 

Senior Jillian Samuels led the way for SMU, hitting three of four 3-pointers early for the Mustangs to stake out a 24-9 lead. However, the momentum slowly shifted towards the Cougars as they whittled away the lead. By the end of the first half, the Mustangs still retained possession of the lead, but it had been cut down to just five, 39-35.
 

In the first half, SMU shot 50.0 percent from the field and 44.4 percent from behind the three-point arc. That percentage went down dramatically in the second half, as the Mustangs shot only 27.3 percent from the field and 20.0 percent from behind the arc.
 

The Mustangs out-rebounded the Cougars, 48-42, with sophomore Christine Elliot leading the way with a season-high 17 rebounds. However, SMU negated that advantage by turning the ball over 17 times, compared to just 11 for the Cougars.
 

The team will depart for their last road trip of the season next weekend, going first to Tulsa to play the Golden Hurricane and then to Huntington, West Virginia to play the Marshall University’s Thundering Herd.