If history repeats itself, the women’s basketball team could find themselves on track for another championship season.
Last year when the SMU women’s basketball team defeated the Houston Jaguars in the opening exhibition game of the 2007 season, they went on to win a Conference USA championship title, and post a record-breaking 24-game win column.
After defeating the Jaguars in an 82-70 victory Tuesday in Moody Coliseum, the Mustangs may take another trip to the NCAA Tournament in the spring.
Made up of previous college players from all over the state, the Houston Jaguars are considered one of the nation’s premiere traveling basketball teams, challenging universities around the country during the preseason.
Including two SMU alumni, 2006 graduate Kendall Shead and 2005 graduate Shanta Roberts, the Houston Jaguars have been the starting game for the Mustangs in six of the last ten seasons, including Tuesday night’s match up. Of those six meetings, SMU has won them all.
Upholding her reputation from last year, junior guard Jillian Samuels led the Mustangs with a three-pointer in the opening seconds of the game, igniting what would turn into a 14 point contribution, supported by three, three-pointers.
While SMU was up 44-35 at the half, the Jaguars outperformed the Mustangs at both ends of the court, including out shooting SMU 47-37 in field goals, 13-10 in threes, and managing to pull down 31 rebounds compared to the Mustang’s 24.
Despite the statistics, junior forward Delisha Wills took an early 11-point lead between both teams, closely followed by eight point and seven rebounds by junior forward Brittany Gilliam. In her 2008 debut, Gilliam was also the only player for SMU to post a double-double, with 12 points and ten rebounds.
Freshman forward Alicia Mitcham also had two steals in the first half, and six rebounds in the game.
Wills had no problem taking over for Janielle Dodds, the team’s leading scorer from 2007, as she reached a game-high 15 points in Tuesday’s victory, as well as seven rebounds.
Joining the reigning conference champs were freshmen post Christine Elliott with six points and forward Morgan Shell with six points as well.
SMU closed out the game averaging 43.3 percent in field goals, 46.7 percent in three’s and 58.6 percent in free throws. Despite first half figures, the Mustangs outshot the Jaguars who managed to make only 33.3 percent of their field goals and 36.8 percent of their attempted three-pointers , but outshot the Mustangs in free throws with a 75 percent success rate.
For the Jaguars, Keona Carter and Sikeetha Shepard both posted 14 points, with Carter adding 15 rebounds to Houston’s best efforts to overcome the Mustangs.
The Mustangs will host the University of Texas at Arlington on Nov.14 at 7 p.m. Starting a rigorous non-conference schedule, including match ups against Texas A&M and Arkansas. Conference play for the Mustangs will begin on Jan. 3 against the University of Tulsa in Moody Coliseum.
