SMU forward Akil Simpson goes for a rebound during play Jan. 23rd. (SPENCER EGGERS/The Daily Campus)

The Houston Cougars handed the Mustangs their second consecutive conference loss Sunday afternoon, only falling by 5 points.

The match up took place in Houston at the Hofheinz Pavillion.

The game was a rematch for the season, SMU only losing by four just three weeks prior to Sundays game. The Cougars are undefeated in C-USA, and 17-4 for the season. The win would have been a big one for the Mustangs.

The leading scorer for the Mustangs was sophomore Alisha Filmore with 17 points on the board.

Akil Simpsona also did her part with her first double-double for the season with 10 rebounds and 10 points

Samantha Mahnesmith also hit double digits for her seventh consecutive game, along with Christine Elliott with 12 points for the afternoon.

The Mustangs got off to a slow start, not scoring until Houston had 11 points on the board and four minutes had already passed on the clock. Raquel Christian and Filmore both contributed to decrease the Cougars lead, and each sank threes making the score 11-6

The game was tied one minute before the half, but the Cougars capitalized and scored just before the buzzer, which left the score 30-28 before the teams hit the locker room.

SMU came out ready to play in the second half, and were in the lead with 15:21 left to play. Simpson was to thank for this, stealing the ball from Porshe Landry and taking it all the way down to one up the Cougars.

The Mustangs battled to maintain this lead, and the teams went back and forth until there were just six minutes left.

With just shy of six minutes left. SMU had a 11-0 run that put them ahead by two 52-50.

SMU still held the lead 67-61 with 38 seconds left on the clock, but Houston sank two threes to tie the game, and then caused the Mustangs two turnovers to take the win.

The Mustangs led the game in shooting percentages with 42.6 percent and the Cougars with just 34.2 percent, but it was the free throws that caused them problems. Houston made 16 of their 22 free throws and SMU only completed 9 of their 15.

After hitting the road, the Mustangs three game winning streak was broken, but their next conference match up should be a good one against Tulane.The Green Wave currently has a record of 16-4 with only two losses in C-USA.

The Tulane game will be hosted Thursday afternoon in Moody Coliseum at 7 p.m.