DALLAS, TEXAS — SMU Men’s Basketball upset Houston to win their 8th straight home game. The overtime thriller finished as a 73-72 win for the Mustangs on Saturday, Feb 15th in Moody Coliseum.
Mustangs head coach, Tim Jankovich said his team would need to play their best game of the season to win this one and they did exactly that. SMU is (18-6) on the year and (8-4) in the American Athletic Conference. Houston will keep their #1 spot in the AAC, followed by Cincinnati, Tulsa and the SMU.
SMU came off a win over UConn and went with a small starting lineup of Tyson Jolly, Kendric Davis, Emmanuel Bandoumel, Isiaha Mike, and Isiah Jasey. SMU’s starting 5 brought high energy from tip off and they got up 10 in the first 5 minutes of the game. The team looked fresh and well prepared defensively, forcing turnovers and shot clock violations right away.
SMU hit a shot to take 15-point lead with 10:49 to go in the 1st half. After the timeout called by Houston, the Cougars went on a quick run, but the Mustangs kept playing great, taking an 11 point lead into the break.
Houston got some offensive rebounds and put back points early in the second half, but SMU kept fighting and held onto a 3-point lead with less than 15 seconds to go. SMU fouled Houston on Houston’s 3 point attempt to tie it up and their guard hit all 3 free throws. SMU point guard, Kendric Davis got a good look on the final shot of regulation, but missed and the game went to overtime tied at 64. Overtime was heated. Both teams took a charge and answered each others clutch 3-pointers. Houston missed the final shot, as time expired.
Tyson Jolly gets animated when he’s playing well and SMU fans love it. He led the Mustangs with 20-points, including several clutch shots late in the game. Isiaha Mike stepped up big time tonight, leading the way as the only double digit scorer in the first half and finishing with 15-points.. Feron Hunt also had 15 points, including a huge 3 in overtime.
Jankovich and his team have won 14 home games this year, dropping only 1 game so far in Moody Coliseum. They have won their last 8 in a row at home.
The Mustangs are on the road for all of next week, starting with Tulane in New Orleans on Wednesday and then at Tulsa on Saturday. The Mustangs are 1 game behind Tulsa in the AAC standings, so this road trip will be huge. SMU has 6 more conference regular season games, before the AAC tournament in Fort Worth from March 12th-15th.
