Photo Courtesy: MustangVision Productions (SMU Athletics)
DALLAS, TEXAS — SMU Basketball got back in the win column Monday, beating Temple 79-68. The Mustangs are 7-2 overall and 3-2 in American Athletic Conference games. The Mustangs swept the Owls in AAC regular season match ups, but could see them again in the conference tournament in March.
SMU’s starters stayed consistent, going with Feron Hunt, Kendric Davis, Emmanuel Bandoumel, Isiaha Jasey and Ethan Chargois. Bandoumel had 9 points in the first 10 minutes of play, helping the Mustangs get off to a strong start offensively. The Owls fought hard, slowly making a dent in the lead and cutting it to 3 by halftime.
SMU continued to play with poise, slowly putting away the Owls in the second half. The Mustangs had 4 double digit point scorers, led by Davis with 22 points, 7 assists and 2 steals. Bandoumel and Hunt both had 16 points, followed by Chargois with 12 points.
Today’s game showed the importance of one of SMU’s defensive goals, to keep offenses under 40% shooting. Feron Hunt also pointed to Head Coach, Tim Jankovich calling the team soft as one of their motivating factors for todays’ consistent toughness and physical offensive rebounding. “I liked what I saw, where we dominated the glass,” Jankovich said. SMU outrebounded Temple by 12, winning that battle 43-31.
Temple had two games scheduled since their last game with SMU, but both were postponed, so SMU handed them back to back loses, making them 1-3 overall and 0-3 in AAC.
SMU will play at Memphis Thursday, Jan. 14th, followed by Wichita State at home Sunday, Jan. 17th.
