The SMU Mustangs (17-5, 6-3) grabbed their most emphatic win of the season Saturday against Memphis. With that victory under their belt, they stay at home to take on the Temple Owls on Thursday.

Following a successful season, Temple has struggled in its inaugural American Athletic Conference season. The Owls are 6-14 (1-7) this season.

Temple lost both of its top scorers from last season, the only double-digit scorers on the team.

Temple’s main issue this season has been their team defense. While the offense is ranked 77th in the country in scoring with 75.8 ppg, the defense is ranked a lowly 316th with 77.4 ppg.

The Mustangs, on the other hand, are trending in the opposite direction.

After finishing with sub-.500 records the past two seasons, SMU has responded with one of their best seasons in recent memory.

A large reason for this is that five of the Mustangs’ top six scorers are either freshmen or transferred here. SMU has been a new-look team.

If SMU does the same thing they’ve done most of the year — play stingy defense and efficient offense — they should walk away with their 18th win of the season.

Should SMU win easily, they could use the time to get their freshman some extra experience.

With the possibility of dancing for the first time since 1993 sneaking up, the Mustangs could always use as much experience as possible for Keith Frazier, Ben Moore, and Sterling Brown.

However, in order for that to happen, SMU will have to limit the damage from quartet Dalton Pepper (17.7 ppg & 5.2 rpg), Will Cummings (16.9 ppg & 4.2 apg), Quenton DeCosey (15.8 ppg), and Anthony Lee (14.1 ppg & 9.1 rpg).

Following the game against Temple, SMU has their biggest showdown of the season on Saturday. The Mustangs take on No. 7 Cincinnati (21-2, 10-0) at 6:30 p.m. at Moody Coliseum.