Mustangs shaft Lady Miners (Photo by John Schreiber, The Daily Campus)

Senior Night brought the SMU Mustangs a much needed victory, 67-51, over the University of Texas, El Paso Lady Miners. The Mustangs used a great pressure defense, a huge free throw advantage and timely, though inconsistent, shooting to give the Mustang’s lone senior, Shonte Roberts, a victory in her final home game. The victory at Moody Coliseum gave SMU 13 home wins on the season, a new program record.

Pressure defense allowed the Mustangs to break wide open a game that was pretty sluggish at the onset. After UTEP scored a layup by Marta Dydek to make the score 13-11 with 11:43 to go in the first half, the Mustangs held the Miners scoreless for the next 8:54.

The Mustangs only got a pair of free throws by Katie Cobb for the next four minutes, but they held a 12-0 scoring advantage during a nine-minute stretch; the Miners went scoreless. On the day, the Mustangs forced 23 turnovers by actively pressuring the UTEP guards and switching through a myriad of man, zone and trap defenses.

UTEP cut the lead to eight early in the second half at 31-23, but it sparked a 15-2 run by the Mustangs that pushed the lead to 21 and effectively ended the game with 13 minutes to play.

The key to the run was the shooting of Katy Cobb who had 10 points during the four-minute stretch. Cobb had 16 points to go along with three assists to follow-up her career-high 21 points in the Mustangs’ win on Thursday night.

The Mustangs were paced offensively by Janielle Dodds, who got solid post-position the whole game as she led the Mustangs with 16 points and nine rebounds. Dodds was guarded all day by the UTEP front line that features two 6-foot-4-inch posts and the 6-foot-6-inch Dydek. Dodds used her quickness and an array of fakes to get to the foul line where she went six-of-eight.

Another key for SMU was the contribution by Sarah Davis. Davis, who has struggled with her shot for much of the year, went three-of-six from the three-point line to score 11 points, chipped in eight boards and was all over the floor on defense.

SMU also found help off the bench from Katie Gross who had eight points and three huge steals that led to Mustang scores.

Although SMU shot poorly from the field the entire game (21-of-60), the team made up for it by shooting 42 percent from the three-point line.

The Mustangs were also boosted by free throw shooting. The team went 17-of-28 from the charity stripe by actively attacking the basket while UTEP managed six makes on only 10 attempts.

The Mustangs needed the win for both WAC tournament seeding and a possible NCAA at-large selection.

Currently, the Mustangs sit in third place in WAC satndings with games next week on the road against Rice and Tulsa for the team’s final contests of the regular season. Rice is currently in second place and Tulsa in fourth in league play.

The Mustangs own an RPI in the mid 50s, which is on the cusp of an at-large birth for the NCAA tournament.

The Mustangs face a key road test on Thursday night as they take on the Golden Hurricane in Tulsa at 7 p.m.