After another split weekend, this time on the home court, the SMU women’s basketball team will embark on their final road trip of the regular season today.
The Mustangs are headed to Tulsa, Okla. to play the Golden Hurricane on Thursday at 7 p.m.
They will then have two days of rest before flying to Huntington, W. Va. to play against Marshall University.
“[Thursday] we play one of the hottest teams in the conference…they are very, very good on their home court,” said head coach Rhonda Rompola.
Out of the past 30 match-ups between Tulsa and SMU, the Mustangs have won 20. SMU is also ranked higher than Tulsa in the Conference USA standings; as of Feb. 16, SMU was ranked No. 5 and Tulsa was ranked No. 11. SMU has a Conference USA record of 6-5, Tulsa has a record of 3-8. However, earlier this season Tulsa was able to beat Houston by three points. The Mustangs fell to Houston Sunday afternoon with a final score of 73-67.
Rompola anticipates Tulsa will put on a lot of pressure with zone defense.
“We’re going to have to knock down some outside shots, we’re going to have to be patient…we struggle sometimes with pressure,” Rompola said.
No matter the outcome of Thursday’s game, the women will return to SMU late that evening, and then they will head to Marshall for their game on Sunday at 11 a.m.
“My biggest concern is taking care of business Thursday, then coming back and being able to rest our legs as much before Sunday,” Rompola said.
This is also the first time these teams will meet during the 2009-10 season. The Herd is ranked just below SMU in the No. 6 spot with a C-USA record of 6-6.
After their final road trip of the season, the Mustangs only have three more games left in their regular season. They will host UCF, Southern Miss and Tulsa all before the start of the C-USA tournament kick-off on March 8 in Tulsa, Okla.
After the Mustangs have dropped from their previous high standing within C-USA, it is now crucial that they get some wins over the next five games.
“There is no room for anybody to have an off game,” Rompola said.
