SMU center Papa Dia, who scored a season-high 31 points during Saturday’s game, contests a rebound against Houston guard Kelvin Lewis. (MICHAEL DANSER/The Daily Campus)

Matt Doherty came to Dallas in 2006 in hopes of turning the SMU men’s basketball team into a winning program.
 

In four seasons Doherty has posted a 47-72 record as the team stumbled through league play and scrapped for wins outside the realm of Conference USA.
 

Four years later, the team has turned a corner, beating the University of Houston 94-83 over the weekend in Moody Coliseum. The Mustang’s first win against Houston since joining C-USA also marks SMU’s second-highest point total in league play.
 

Back at the .500 mark, the Mustangs (14-14,7-7) find themselves in sixth place in league play. Houston, previously tied for sixth place with SMU, slipped into seventh place at 16-12 and 6-8.
 

“It was a huge game for us, not only beating Houston, but climbing the ladder in the standings was pretty exciting,” Doherty said. “We haven’t been in this type of position before and I think it really motivates the guys to come to practice and work hard and play hard.”
 

It looked like the game would be an easy win for the Mustangs; Papa Dia started the game with a slam-dunk off the tip. Dia and Rodney Clinkscales posted career-high numbers from the field. The Cougars held on, hitting seven of their nine three-point attempts early in the first half. There was no clear leader untiljust moments before halftime.
 

Starting his sixth game in his first season at SMU, Clinkscales finished the night with 12 points, a personal best in league play for the Dodge City Community College transfer. Clinkscales’ effort also helped lead to the third game that SMU has had four or more players reach double figures in four games.
 

Houston managed to pull ahead by six with 1:11 left at the end of the first half: 39-33.
After losing to Houston once this season already, the Mustangs refused to go down in the second half without a fight.
 

“We haven’t beat Houston since I’ve been here,” Dia said. “When Houston comes in, they just roll in and beat us by 20 or 25 and go home.”
 

Dia felt that the Mustangs had a good chance of beating them this year, and said “it was exciting to beat them at home.”
 

“I challenged [the team] a little bit to keep their chin[s] up and work hard,” Doherty said, promising that “things would turn around, and they certainly did. We did it from balanced scoring and taking care of the ball in the second half.”
 

The Mustangs shot 68 percent from the field in the second half to help them gain the lead, one that didn’t come without a fight. A bombardment of three-pointers from Derek Williams, Robert Nyakundi and Mouhammad Faye helped the Mustangs gain a seven-point lead with 4:03 left.
 

With just under four minutes left, Dia made up a missed rebound by responding with a block under the net to give SMU their final burst of momentum for what Doherty calls another signature win.
 

Feeling their performance at Houston was tentative, Doherty told the players pre-game that “they needed to be the aggressor[s]” this time. “I especially challenged [Dia] as much as anybody.”
 

Dia, in the best game of his career, posted a career-high 31 points, the third most by any SMU player in a C- USA game. Dia’s previous record was a 23-point contribution in the team’s win over Memphis in January. The 6-foot-9-inch forward from Senegal also recorded his eighth double-double of the season with 12 rebounds.
 

Faye recorded his second double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 boards, marking the sixth time in the last seven games that Faye has reached double figures in scoring, and his third time this season to collect double figures in rebounds.
 

After playing 40 minutes for the ninth time this season, Williams completed the group of players to post double digits with 18 points. He now has played over 35 minutes in 13 consecutive games, scoring 15 or more points in 17 straight games.
 

“In the first eight to ten seconds, we were just aiming to hit a lot of shots and the ball just went in the hole for us,” Williams said. This far in the season, “we’re all familiar with how each other plays and we just go out there and have fun.”
 

The Mustangs play in their final two games of the season next week starting with Tulsa (20-9, 9-5) on the road March 3. The Mustangs will be back in action in Moody Coliseum on March 6 to host the Marshall Herd (22-7, 10-4) at 7 p.m.