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Wish I could attend a game this year

SMU women host UAB in a rare home game

07:35 PM CST on Saturday, February 14, 2009

By BOBBI ROQUEMORE / The Dallas Morning News
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D/FW Airport never looked so sweet to the SMU women's basketball team as it returned from Memphis on Friday following a 71-57 win over the Tigers the night before.

The Mustangs are winding down a brutal stretch in which they play eight of 11 Conference USA games on the road. They get a respite Saturday as they host UAB at 2 p.m. at Moody Coliseum.
Colleges

Nagging injuries, the stress of missing classes, and fatigue from being on the road might have worn on the Mustangs (15-9, 8-3 C-USA) as they lost to Southern Miss and Central Florida this month – their first back-to-back losses since November. But the victory over Memphis on Thursday showed the team's toughness, coach Rhonda Rompola said, and the Mustangs wrapped up the three-game road swing on a high note.

Today's matchup against the Blazers (10-14, 5-6) is also a critical one, especially since the Mustangs are among the teams vying for one of four first-round byes in the C-USA tournament.

"They knew we needed to win that game," Rompola said. "If we can get that game [today], it'll help us a little more with our confidence, because we have been on the road a lot. We need to get by this tough time."

Several reserves got extended playing time during the road swing. All five posts played against Memphis, including freshman Alicia Mitcham (West Mesquite) and redshirt freshman Heidi Brandenburg (Garland Lakeview Centennial).

Junior guard/forward Brittany Gilliam said she's playing through pain in her right knee but is persevering by keeping sight of the team's ultimate goal: retuning to the NCAA tournament.

"It's really just digging down and going hard," Gilliam said. "I know everybody's body is worn out, and we're just showing that we would rather not stop early. We'd rather get it done and stop later."

The Mustangs play their final two road games against Houston (Feb. 20) and Rice (Feb. 22) and wrap up the regular season at home against Tulane (Feb. 26) and UTEP (Feb. 28).

Need a win today. I was checking the conference standings this morning - this conference is all over the place. The championship (tourney and regular season) is wide open. S. Miss and UCF have three road games in a row so we could see some movement at the top in the next few games. Looks like our last game at home against UTEP could be HUGE. It starts with today though - gotta take it one game at a time.

Tied for 1st - S. Miss and UCF (9-2)
3rd - SMU (8-3)
Tied for 4th - UTEP and Houston (8-4)
6th - Tulane (6-6)
Tied for 7th - ECU, Marshall and UAB (5-6)
Tied for 10th - Memphis and Tulsa (2-9)
12th - Rice (1-11)

If the score on CBS sports is right, we are absolutely killing them.

We did (ok, girls did) and great win ladies. Started off pretty slow

UCF lost to East Carolina in OT.

Blowout win. No complaints from this fan. I was hoping Marshall would beat S. Miss to force a three-way tie for first. Only got half the luck with ECU beating UCF. So S. Miss is in sole position of first, then SMU and UCF are tied for second. Mustangs gotta take care of business down the stretch. If they bottle up their performance from today, they could beat any team in this conference. Nice win - 16-9 overall and 9-3 in conference. I'll take it!

Just get somewhere in the top 4 seeds for the tournament to get a bye, and I'll take our chances. I don't think there's much separation between the top 4 teams.

The tournament will come down to execution and who is ready. We were last year. And we have that experience from last year as a bonus.

Nice blowout win.

But safe to say, this is one-bid league this year. No one nearly good enough to warrant an at-large.

VERY impressive win. Look at the box score, and the numbers don't really jump out: Gilliam had 13 points, Samuels had 12, Brandenburg had 10. Lots of contributions from the bench, and lots of invaluable rest for the starters.

What was most impressive was the defense. UAB's Britney Jones is the top scorer in C-USA, and the Ponies held her to 11 points, and a very quiet 11 - she hit 3-of-18 from the floor. She missed a few, but we also played the best defense we've played all season — it was no accident that she had a bad day. If the Ponies can muster that kind of defensive effort again, that certainly will bode well down the stretch toward the postseason.

Thanks for the info PonyPride. Go Lady Mustangs!

Just MUSTANGS - the "Lady" part was dropped in the early 1990s. We're all Mustangs!

But to echo you: GO MUSTANGS! Beat the hell out of Cougar High Thursday!

Is there a statistic for shot clock violations? Or is that just shown as a TO? On many possessions yesterday we kept UAB from taking a shot because of the time clock. Another indication of a good defensive game.