The SMU men’s basketball team will look to rebound from a two-game losing streak tonight when they host the Rice University Owls (8-16, 1-9).
Despite losing to Houston over the weekend, and the University of Texas at El Paso just three days before, the Mustangs have won five of their last eight games and three of their last four home games. Posting a 2-3 record in Conference USA play at Moody Coliseum, SMU was able to defeat Memphis, the defending C-USA champion.
Senior Derek Williams and junior Papa Dia are leading SMU, averaging 17.2 and 12 points, respectively. Williams, who is in fourth place in C-USA for average points per game, has scored 20 or more points in nine games this season, five of which were conference play.
The last game between the Owls and Mustangs was on the road and ended in a 73-65 win for SMU. Williams led the team that game with 22 points, and Dia had 21 points and nine rebounds. SMU has a 115-74 winning record over the Owls heading into the 190th meeting between the in-state rivals. The team’s record against Rice is SMU’s highest, with the Mustangs winning five of the last four match ups.
Playing in his final year at SMU, Williams is only seven points away from becoming the 18th Mustang in SMU history to score at least 800 points in a two-year span.
Dia also leads SMU’s defense alongside senior Mouhammad Faye, holding opponents to 15.2 points off their scoring averages. Averaging a career-high season in points and rebounds, Dia is fifth in the league in rebounds per game (8.6), giving him the most double-doubles this season (he has seven) since Ike Ofoegbu in 2006-07.
Falling to last place in C-USA rankings, Rice has been averaging 64.7 points per game, led by 6-foot-2-inch guard Jackson Tamir with 11.3 points and game. Arsalan Kazemi, a 6-foot-7-inch freshman forward, with 11.2 points per game, has been averaging nine rebounds per game with four double-doubles on the season. In comparison, SMU has been averaging just under 70 points per game, consistently defeating their opponents by a 3.2 margin.
Coming to Moody after losing to Southern Miss, but defeating Texas A&M International, the Owls have yet to string together a pair of wins since the start of their season in November. Tonight’s game will take place at 7 p.m. in Moody Coliseum.