The SMU Mustangs men’s basketball team opened the conference portion of its final season in the American Athletic Conference with a 66-54 win against Charlotte at Moody Coliseum on Tuesday night.
The Mustangs continued to display stingy defense, holding Charlotte to just 34% shooting from the floor and controlling the rebounding margin while keeping Charlotte’s big men well below their season scoring averages.
After falling behind 10-2 by the under-16-minute media timeout, SMU clamped down on defense by implementing a full-court press. While the change did not cause immediate turnovers from the 49ers, the Mustangs were able to get out in transition, took the lead on a Zhuric Phelps dunk off a steal, and ultimately outscored Charlotte 22-14 over the rest of the half to take a 32-24 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
“We got some stops and got out in transition,” SMU head coach Rob Lanier told the media postgame. “We weren’t making shots when we got in the halfcourt. We were getting good looks, and they weren’t going down, but we started getting in the paint, we started attacking the offensive glass, and it started with our defense.”
Cold shooting and SMU’s defense continued to haunt Charlotte in the second half as the 49ers fell further behind and saw their shooting percentage plummet to 32.1% (22.1% from beyond the arc), while the Mustangs improved from the floor — leading by as many as 16.
Charlotte cut the lead to nine in the final minute, but Jalen Smith knocked down a big three-pointer from the top of the arc to seal a 12-point win and give the Mustangs their 10th victory of the season.
Phelps led SMU with 13 points, six rebounds, and three assists, and Samuell Williamson added 12 points, while Tyreek Smith had a team-high 11 rebounds.
Lu’cye Patterson led Charlotte with a game-high 19 points.
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WHAT TO KNOW
— SMU opened American Athletic Conference play with a 66-54 win over Charlotte at home.
— The Mustangs won their AAC opener for the 10th consecutive season and now own a four-game winning streak.
— Charlotte joined the AAC this season and played SMU for the first time since 1989. SMU has won all three meetings between the two programs.
— SMU is now 10-4 on the season after winning 10 games all last season.
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BY THE NUMBERS
— SMU held an eight-point lead at halftime despite having a worse shooting first half than Charlotte and going 1/9 from three-point range.
— SMU had 10 different players score, while Charlotte got points from just six.
— SMU came into the game holding opponents to just 36.3% shooting from the field and 25.8% from three-point range on the season and held Charlotte under both marks.
— Charlotte forwards Igor Milicic Jr. and Dishon Jackson entered Tuesday’s game averaging a combined 23 points and were held to just 13 with each spending much of the game in foul trouble.
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WHO SAID
— Lanier on the slow start: “I was proud of the guys that we got the job done. Ultimately, I felt like we were missing a little bit of pop. I don’t know what to attribute it to, but I was concerned about it in yesterday’s practice that we were missing a little bit of juice. … Our defense just wasn’t great to start the game, and then we got better as the game wore on, but there was another level that I was hoping we would reach. The fact that what we did was good enough is a good sign, but we certainly, you know, we have a long way to go.”
— Williamson on winning the conference opener: “Anytime you come in here and win a conference game and start the conference schedule off right with the win, we’re going to be excited about that. There’s definitely a little bit of rust from the 10 days off that we had to shake off, and we didn’t make a lot of shots we normally do tonight. … I think at times we let that affect our defensive intensity but were still able to go in there and make enough plays to get the job done.”
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NEXT UP
— SMU (10-4, 1-0 in the AAC) travels to Memphis to face the No.15 ranked Memphis Tigers  (11-2, 0-0) at 4 p.m. CT on Sunday.
