Matt Doherty and the men’s basketball team (14-14, 7-7) are on a two-game winning streak as they face the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (20-9, 9-5) in the teams’ second meeting this season tonight.
With just two games remaining until the Conference USA Tournament, the Mustangs find themselves sixth place in league play, two wins behind No. 5 Tulsa.
Currently suffering through a nine-game losing streak against Tulsa, SMU is looking to return to their earlier success against the Golden Hurricane.
Prior to this nine-game losing streak, the Mustangs actually had a stretch of five straight wins against Tulsa.
Coming off a 94-83 win at Moody Coliseum against the University of Houston, SMU continues to post the top rebounding defense in the conference.
The Mustangs also rank in the top half in C-USA polls in scoring defense and field goal percentage.
Tulsa, however, posts the second best rebounding offense and leads the conference in free throw percentage.
“They’re a different animal with Jerome Jordan and Ben Uzoh,” Doherty said about Tulsa’s offense. “[Jordan] is one of the more talented centers in the country. We’re going to have to really be conscious of those two guys, especially playing on the road.”
Jordan, a 7-foot tall senior, has been averaging 16 points this season along with an impressive .833 success rate from the free throw line.
Second in scoring for the Golden Hurricane is 6-foot-3-inch Uzoh with an average of 15.6 points per game and 22 blocks and 27 steals on the season.
Papa Dia is coming off a record-setting performance against Houston, when he scored a career-high 31 points, improving his point per game average to 12.5.
Dia, with eight double-doubles on the season, averages a team-high 8.6 rebounds per game and also has 36 blocks this season.
Holding up the rest of SMU’s offense is the trio of Derek Williams, Mouhammad Faye and Robert Nyakudni.
Williams, who is fourth overall in scoring in C-USA, has 17 games over 15 points and leads the team with an average of 17 points per game. Faye averages 10.7 points, while Nyakundi has a 7.6 point per game average.
“Every game we win now sets a new record for C-USA wins,” Doherty said. “So we’re just trying to get better and better and whether we win or lose at Tulsa I just want to get better.”
“If we play better we’ll have a better chance to win,” Doherty said. “We’re better than we were the first time we played Tulsa but that doesn’t mean we’re going to win the game.”
Wednesday’s game is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
The Mustangs return to Moody Coliseum for their final regular season game on Saturday night to host the Marshall Thundering Herd at 7 p.m.
