SMU forward Haley Day going for a layup in Saturday’s game against the University of Southern Miss. (SPENCER EGGERS/The Daily Campus)

With one game left in the regular season, the SMU women’s basketball team is on a hot streak. The Mustangs defeated both the University of Central Florida Knights on Thursday, Feb. 25 and the Southern Miss Golden Eagles on Saturday, Feb. 27.
 

After such a successful weekend, SMU maintained their No. 3 rank in Conference USA with nine wins and six losses. The team remains tied with the University of Houston but is ahead thanks to a better overall record.
 

Along with a critical 69-61 victory against UCF, Mustang point guard senior Jillian Samuels had even more reason to celebrate after Thursday’s game. It was during that game that Samuels hit the biggest three-pointer of her career at SMU. She now holds the all-time 3-pointer record with a career total of 238.  
 

Head coach Rhonda Rompola dubbed this record the “big shot of the day” when speaking with smumustangs.com.
 

The same players featured all season continued to impress. Junior Haley Day earned her second double-double this season with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Senior Brittany Gilliam chipped in as well, putting up 13 points for the Mustangs. Going into the locker room at halftime, SMU held an eight-point lead over the Knights.
 

The second half was more evenly matched and the Knights managed to tie the game 35-35. Then, with 16:25 left in the second half, UCF stole the lead. It took SMU nearly 10 minutes to regain the upper hand.  
 

The Mustangs then had a quick turn around, hosting Southern Miss less than 48 hours after their previous victory.  The Mustangs were able to build a much bigger lead on Saturday afternoon and finished victoriously, 81-66.
 

The same hot shots that have been putting up points all season came through again against the Golden Eagles. Gilliam had 19 points while Day lead the team with 22.

Samuels added 15, while sophomore Samantha Mahnesmith had an additional 10. Heidi Brandenburg scored 11 points for the Mustangs, which is a career-high for her.
 

Moody Coliseum will only see one more regular season match with SMU hosting Tulsa on Wednesday, March 3 at 7:00 p.m. The Mustangs will look to redeem a loss suffered earlier this season to the Golden Hurricanes. This game will also serve as a time to honor the seniors graduating from SMU this year. The team will say goodbye to their three captains: Gilliam, Samuels and Alice Severin.