The SMU Women’s basketball team fell to the Conference USA first place team, UTEP, last night in El Paso, Texas.

The Lady Mustangs put up a hard fight, but they ultimately fell to the Miners with the final score of 68-50.

Raven Short also had 4 steals during the game, which aided in the 12 points the Mustangs scored off of the Miner’s turnovers.

SMU sophomore Raven Short put up nine points and four rebounds.

Also with nine points, was senior sharp shooter Samantha Mahnesmith

Akil Simpson had a tough night offensively, only adding eight points, but was able to bring down eight rebounds. These eight rebounds proved to be small improvement from her average of seven per game.

During the match-up, the Mustangs showed their strength from the line, making all of their attempted free throws.

However, SMU shot only 36 percent from the field, and 2-12 from the three, which ultimately led to their loss.

Despite putting in long hours during practice to try and break apart the Miners’ offense, SMU wasn’t able to slow them down during the game.

UTEP had several players put up double-digit numbers throughout the night.

The Miners’ stand out player Erika Warren finished with 13 points, while teammate Anete Steinberga also had an impressive game.

Steinberga was able to add another 12 to the Miners’ effort.

As a team, UTEP dominated the Mustangs on the board.

SMU was unable to keep the Miners from pulling down 42 rebounds overall.

Sophomore Kayla Thornton proved to be a tremendous asset to UTEP as she gathered eight rebounds.

Not far behind from Thornton in collecting rebounds was senior Gloria Brown.

Brown finished the game with a solid six rebounds.

The loss puts the Mustang’s conference record to 5-9, lowering their overall record to 12-15.

SMU heads back home to Moody Coliseum this weekend to take on Tulane, who will be another difficult team to beat.

The Green Wave is fourth in Conference USA with a record of 8-5 in conference play and 19-7 overall.

Players to look out for are junior guard Olivia Grayson and senior center Brett Benzio.

Grayson averages 14.1 points and 5.7 rebounds per game this season, all while shooting a solid 80 percent from the line.

Benzio has proven herself to be a force in the paint — she averages 9.3 rebounds and 9.6 points per game.

As a team, Tulane is decent from the arc, shooting 28.6 percent, and strong from the field, making more than a third of their attempted shots.

Tip-off is set for this Sunday at 2 p.m.