SMU Women’s Basketball head coach Rhonda Rompola cuts the net after winning against UTEP for the Conference USA Championship title on Saturday afternoon in Moody Coliseum. (Stuart Palley)
When SMU head coach Rhonda Rompola cut the last string of the net at the end of Saturday’s 78-65 win over the University of Texas at El Paso, the team had no idea they were about to be Conference USA Champions. In their mind, Southern Miss was still a threat. The most the Mustangs could hope for was a shared conference championship title with the Golden Eagles.
“Sometimes things are meant to fall into place like they did,” explained Rompola in the wake of her 331st career win. “Sometimes things are just meant to be.”
It was expected Southern Miss would beat Memphis, making the Mustangs co-champions with the Golden Eagles. But fate worked in the Mustangs’ favor, as Southern Miss allowed the chance for a shared championship to slip through their fingers in an overtime loss to the Tigers. It was not until nearly three hours after defeating UTEP that the Mustangs learned of their good fortune heading into the tournament.
“It’s amazing,” said head coach Rhonda Rompola. “It’s nice to have a little luck on your side and to see things fall into place.”
Wrapping up the conference season at 12-4 and 19-10, the Mustangs pulled ahead of a three-way tie for first place, receiving a first-round bye in the tournament. Had Houston won over East Carolina the Mustangs could have entered the tournament seeded as low as No.5 or 6 team had they lost to UTEP, now 11-5, 18-11.
The conference title marks the first time the Mustangs have been conference Champions since leaving the Western Athletic Conference at the end of the 2004-05 season. The last conference title SMU won was in 2000 as members of the WAC. The Mustangs are also guaranteed an appearance in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.
Having already defeated the Miners once this season, the Mustangs were back in familiar territory as one of the top teams in the conference after UTEP won the conference title last season. Prior to this season’s 70-64 win in El Paso, the Mustangs won the conference Tournament last year in a 68-58 victory over the Miners, sending both teams to the NCAA Tournament.
In Saturday’s win over the Miners, SMU freshman Christine Elliott had another strong performance recording her fourth career double double. Closing the night with 15 points and 11 rebounds, Elliott was joined by the team’s leading scorer, Brittany Gilliam, with 24 points, falling just two points shy of tying her career record.
“Early in the season we didn’t have the post presence that we do now,” explained Rompola. “Think about how far [Elliott] has come.”
Down 41-36 at the half, the Mustangs found themselves fighting to stay afloat against the Miners, as was the case when the teams met for the tournament title last March. But as history seems to repeat itself for the Mustangs, SMU started the second half on an 18-4 point run, putting them on top for the remainder of the game.
With all five starters playing out the majority of the game, Rompola said she could see UTEP fading near the end, but was impressed with her team’s ability to hang on to the lead and finish the season on such a positive note.
Deciding the second half of the game would be best played by the starters, Rompola made the decision to keep those select players in the majority of the game.
“The first five that started really got us going,” said Rompola. “Our junior leadership is our experience.”
A pair of shots from Gilliam, just five minutes in to the second half, was all it took to ignite the Mustang’s scoring spree, as SMU took off on two other scoring bursts including a 7-4 and 6-0 run at the end to seal the win.
“It was just a shooter’s night I guess,” said Gilliam.
In the end, it was the junior class leadership that Rompola credits for carrying the team to such a high rank. Rompola said the combined talent of Gilliam, Samuels, Delisha Wills and Alice Severin made up over half of the Mustangs points with Severin helping immensely on defense with six rebounds.
“We were just taking it to them,” said Samuels. “As long as we just kept taking our shots and being aggressive and playing team ball we held them.”
Wills, still out with a foot injury, is expected by Rompola to play in the tournament. Sidelined for the past three games with an undisclosed injury, Wills has been on the bench with a walking boot.
“It’s a foot [injury] and I expect Delisha back,” said Rompola. “[Wills is] in our post player’s ears. She’s coaching from the bench.”
The Mustangs travel to New Orleans for the Conference USA Tournament tomorrow. SMU plays in round two of the tournament on Friday at noon against the winner between East Carolina University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“I think we all just gelled together as a team,” said Gilliam. “Last year we more focused on one person, but now you can’t just key in on one person because any of us are capable of going off at any time.”
Said Samuels about how she feels the team will do heading into the tournament, “When we handle our business we can just go out there and win.”
