WBB drops season finale to Temple, faces Owls in AACs

[PonyPride]

From SMUMustangs.com:

SMU Loses Regular-Season Finale Against Temple

Mustangs won the first of a back-to-back against the Owls Monday night

DALLAS (SMU) – The SMU women's basketball team was unable to repeat its overtime magic from Monday night, losing 56-48 Wednesday night against Temple in Moody Coliseum. Playing the Owls for the second straight game, the Mustangs' comeback effort could not withstand the late run by Temple.

SMU outscored the Owls 23-13 in the third quarter to tie the game, 42-42, going into the fourth quarter. Savannah Wilkinson scored the first points of the final quarter to give SMU its first lead of the game, 44-42, with 9:11 left to play. The Mustangs stretched to lead to four, 48-44, with 6:08 on the clock. Temple scored 30 seconds later to spark a 12-0 run that lasted the remainder of the game.

Sydne Wiggins led the Mustangs with 14 points going 6-of-13 from the field. Wilkinson scored 12, reaching double figures for the second straight game, and grabbed six rebounds. Like the first game on Monday, SMU outshot Temple 21-18 from the field. but SMU made five free throws in seven attempts while Temple was 17-for-20 at the charity stripe. SMU defeated Temple 65-61 in overtime Monday night in Moody Coliseum.

The Mustangs (13-13, 7-7 American Athletic Conference) finished tied for fourth in the conference with Temple (13-14, 8-8 The American), SMU's highest finish ever in The American and its highest league finish since winning the Conference USA regular season in 2013.

No. 5-seed SMU will play No. 4-seed Temple Tuesday at 2 p.m. in the Air Force Reserve American Athletic Conference Championship quarterfinals in Fort Worth, Texas, at Dickies Arena. The matchup will be the third straight between the Mustangs and the Owls.

[ALEX LIFESON]

They seemed to show so much promise early and you would expect them to get better as the season went along. For those in the know, what caused the nose dive of the team?

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Probably not a bad idea for us not to win the second one since there was a good chance we had to play them three straight times.

[mrydel]

They seemed to show so much promise early and you would expect them to get better as the season went along. For those in the know, what caused the nose dive of the team?

They finished higher than ever in the AAC. I would say they nose jumped early rather than nose dived late. New coach has done very well and they should only improve going forward.

[PonyPride]

Had two significant cold shooting stretches Wednesday — every team goes through it sometime. SMU and Temple are pretty evenly matched teams. Mustangs won by 4 and lost by 8. The game in Houston got out of hand, but SMU also lost by single digits to a good Tulane team (20-8, 11-5) and Wichita State (14-15) ... and beat a 15-9 Tulsa team by 33. Like most teams, the Mustangs have had ups and downs, but compare it to a year ago and it's night and day.

The Ponies will lose some major contributors to graduation: Sidne Wiggins, Jasmine Smith, Kayla White, Paige Bayliss, Keyanna Warthen, JaQuia White and Amber Bacon all took part in Senior Night. But senior forward Savannah Wilkinson did not take part, meaning she likely will return next year — significant because she leads the Mustangs in scoring (14.7 points per game), rebounds (10.1). Add that to the Mustangs' highly-touted incoming class and the return of Amirah Abdur-Rahim from an injury, and there is ample reason for optimism.

Before that, though: round 3 vs. Temple next week in the AAC championship in Fort Worth.