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Mustangs use balanced attack to subdue Rainbow Warriors, 69-56

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Mustangs use balanced attack to subdue Rainbow Warriors, 69-56

Postby PonyPride » Sun Jan 07, 2001 3:09 pm

Image vs Image

<B>January 6, 2001-- Moody Coliseum</B>

<I>Mustangs use balanced attack to subdue Rainbow Warriors, 69-56</I>

Three players -- junior point guard Damon Hancock, senior forward Willie Davis and sophomore guard Quinton Ross -- scored in double figures to lead the SMU men’s basketball team (11-3 overall, 2-0 against Western Athletic Conference opponents) to a 69-56 victory over Hawaii Saturday afternoon at Moody Coliseum.

Hancock had 17 points, Davis 16 and Ross 15 as the Mustangs knocked off a Rainbow Warrior team that was playing without its second-leading scorer -- forward Troy Ostler, who was sent home Friday with a sprained ankle.

“Certainly, we were fortunate Troy Ostler didn’t play,” SMU head coach Mike Dement said of the 6-foot-10 Hawaii senior who has averaged 15.1 points per game. “I think he had 22 against us last year (when Hawaii eliminated the Mustangs from the WAC Tournament).”

Hancock said it was imperative that the Ponies continue to win at home.

“We want to defend our home territory,” Hancock said. “We’re very happy to start out (the conference season) 2-0.”

It appeared initially that the Mustangs would have an easy time against Hawaii. Senior swingman Jeryl Sasser took the opening tip-off and immediately threw an alley-oop pass to sophomore forward Jibran Kelley, who threw down a monstrous dunk three seconds into the game. The SMU defense was stiff -- thanks in part to awful Hawaii shooting -- limiting the Rainbow Warriors to
just three points in the game’s first eight minutes.

SMU opponents seem to have settled on a trend: slow the ball down to try to clog up the Mustangs’ fast-break offense. Sasser insisted he and his teammates are not getting frustrated by the tactic.

“No, not really,” Sasser said when asked about opponents’ stalling techniques. “We go out there and try to have fun. They try to frustrate us, but we can play their game, too.”

Sasser did not have his best game of the year, pulling down a game-high 12 rebounds (SMU outrebounded Hawaii, 49-31) but scoring just nine points.

“I guess that’s encouraging, when Jeryl has a bit of an off-day and we still win,” Dement said.

Instead of relying solely on Sasser and Davis, the Mustangs turned to Hancock to seal the victory. The Ponies’ point guard abused his Hawaii counterpart, point guard David Hilton, in the second half. Hancock, who has five inches and 50 pounds on Hilton, beat his man with quickness, strength and moves. He drove the lane at will late in the game, scoring in the paint and repeatedly
getting to the foul line.

“Damon played really well today,” Dement said. “The only thing I could say is that I wish he shot from the outside more, but he attacked the basket very, very well, and he got to the free throw line (where he hit 5-of-7 attempts).”

SMU plays next at Nevada Jan. 11 and at Fresno State Jan. 13.

For AP pictures, go to this link:
<A HREF="http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=Southern+Methodist&c=news_photos&n=10" TARGET=_blank>http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=Southern+Methodist&c=news_photos&n=10</A>
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[This message has been edited by MustangMatt (edited 01-07-2001).]
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Re: Mustangs use balanced attack to subdue Rainbow Warriors, 69-56

Postby Horseshoe » Tue Jan 09, 2001 12:54 pm

DeWayne Floyd and Jibran Kelley were awesome!

Thanks for the great story, PonyFans.com.
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