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Mustang shoots like All-WAC star

Bryan Hopkins, who doesn't make league team, scores 30.

By Jeff Passan
The Fresno Bee

(Updated Wednesday, March 10, 2004, 5:24 AM)


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As Bryan Hopkins punctured holes in Tulsa's defense, one of his teammates slinked up to him with a small tidbit of information.

Hopkins was told he hadn't made the All-Western Athletic Conference men's basketball team. It came in the midst of perhaps his best performance this season, a 30-point showing that led Southern Methodist to a 79-60 victory Tuesday in the McCaffrey WAC tournament play-in game.

The eighth-seeded Mustangs (12-17) play top-seeded Nevada at noon Thursday, oozing confidence after Hopkins' 10-for-13 shooting that included six 3-pointers.

"If there's 10 players better in the league than this guy," SMU coach Robert Lineburg said, "show 'em to me."

Tulsa can't argue. For the third time this season Hopkins led the Mustangs past the Golden Hurricane (9-20), which won the WAC tournament last season.

"I got hot for a while," Hopkins said. "The rims just got wide. Real wide."

For all of the Mustangs.

They shot 67.9% in the second half and at one point scored on 16 of 20 possessions.

A 3-pointer from Guilherme Teichmann gave Tulsa a 40-38 lead early in the half. SMU answered with a 13-2 run capped by a Hopkins 3-pointer.

"He started off real hot," said Tulsa's Jason Parker, who scored 14. "We figured he wouldn't be able to do it all game. He proved us wrong, I guess."

Time and again Hopkins did, whether with an off-balance jump shot or a 23-foot 3-pointer. He drilled one of those with 3 minutes, 38 seconds remaining and drew a foul on Parker, making the free throw for a 74-59 lead.

It was the best SMU had played since Lineburg took over Feb. 27 after Mike Dement's firing.

And it was the worst Tulsa felt in a long time. The defeat was Tulsa's first in a WAC tournament opening round and gave the Golden Hurricane a 20-loss season for the first time since 1988.

"Every day I wake up between now and November I'm going to remember what happened this year," Golden Hurricane coach John Phillips said. "The players are going to do the same. And their commitment has to be unquestioned. It's not acceptable what happened. I know that. The players know that. And we've got to do something about it."

The reporter can be reached at jpassan@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6400.





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