Robert Nyakundi led the Mustangs to their third consecutive win with a career-high 24 points as the Mustangs cruised to a 76-72 victory over the Central Arkansas Bears (2-3) Sunday afternoon in Moody Coliseum.
After winning four of their last five games, the Mustangs improved to 4-3 overall and 4-2 on their home court.
Nyakundi’s scoring efforts marked the third time this season he has scored in double figures and the 10th time in his career. He has also scored at least 15 points in each of SMU’s last three wins.
Papa Dia, with 24 points and 10 rebounds, posted his third double double of the season and eighth of his career, moving him into 15th place in program history with 636 career boards. Justin Haynes also reached double digits in scoring for the third time this season and then 10th time in his career with 12 points.
Riding a two-game winning streak prior to Sunday’s win, the Mustangs entered the game with a new school record in field goal percentage after shooting 72.3 percent against Lamar University during the SMU Invitational. SMU was perfect from the free throw line in the first half while shooting 51.7 percent from the field compared to 50 percent from the Bears. Up 37-32 at halftime, SMU went to complete their second best performance of the season in field goals, shooting 53 percent overall.
In their win over the Bears, SMU finished the night shooting an impressive 85 percent in free throws.
Central Arkansas, still searching for their first win on the road, shot only 48 percent in field goals.
With Dia and Nyakudni both playing for 38 minutes, only Ryan Harp and Rodney Clinkscales game off the bench to add six points to SMU’s total score. The Mustangs, led by the same five starters since the start of the season, scored 38 points in the paint and had a 10-to-13 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Sunday’s win featured two head coaches that were starters on NCAA Division I national championship teams during their collegiate careers. Doherty was a starter when North Carolina won the 1982 NCAA title and Arkansas Central head coach Corliss Williamson was a starter for Arkansas when the Razorbacks won the 1994 championship game.
In Wednesday’s win over Wayland Baptist, Nyakundi scored 15 points, all in three-pointers, to lead the Mustangs to a 65-32 victory night on their home court. Dia added 13 points on the night and Mike Walker and Harp adding eight each.
Nyakundi, with 102 three’s on the season is the 11th player in the program’s history to surpass the 100-point mark.
Wayland Baptist, who counted the loss as an exhibition game, scored only 16 points in each half, with the Mustangs nearly doubling their score each half. Up 30-16 at halftime, SMU was already well on their way to their second consecutive win, shooting 50 percent in field goals compared to the Pioneers hitting five of their 24 shots from the field.
“I thought we did a good job defensively, that was the thing I was most impressed with,” Doherty said in a radio post-game interview. “We played a match zone and we forced 24 turnovers and held them to only 24 percent from the field.”
SMU also continued to show improvement in their passing game, posting a 14-to-8 assist to turnover ratio, the team’s best performance of the season.
The Mustangs face their second opponent on the road on Wednesday when they travel to Ruston, La. to take on Louisiana Tech (5-2) at 7 p.m. SMU will be back in Moody this weekend to host Grambling State (1-5) on Saturday at 5 p.m.
