Mustang Women Fall 56-54 At Rice
HOUSTON, Texas (SMU) – The Mustangs fell 56-54 at Rice Sunday on a layup by Brittany Carter with eight seconds left. Alisha Filmore led SMU (7-8, 0-2 Conference USA) with 12 points, but her 3-point attempt with four seconds on the clock didn’t fall, giving Rice (7-8, 1-1 C-USA) the win.
Akil Simpson grabbed a team-high 12 rebounds to go with her seven points. Kristin Hernandez and Heidi Brandenburg each added eight points for the Mustangs, while Jessica Kuster led the Owls with 16 points and 16 rebounds.
The Mustangs shot 43.8-percent from the field and connected on a pair of late 3-pointers to take a 32-28 lead at halftime. Trailing 28-26, Filmore connected on SMU’s first 3-pointer of the game with 18 seconds left. Filmore pulled down the rebound after D’Frantz Smart’s attempt to give Rice the lead bounced out, and hit Hernandez, who was running across midcourt. Hernandez launched it toward the goal and drained it as the buzzer sounded.
Filmore led SMU in the first half with 10 points and grabbed four of SMU’s 23 rebounds in the first 20 minutes. The Mustangs were out-rebounding the Owls 23-20 at the break, despite 10 points and seven rebounds by Kuster, the top-rebounder and third-ranked scorer in Conference USA.
SMU stretched the lead to eight over the first seven minutes of the second half, taking a 43-35 lead with 12:41 left in the game. With the Owls battling back and trailing by three, 49-46 with 4:38 left, Kuster pulled down an offensive rebound but was striped by Hernandez. Elliott hit a 10-foot jumper on the ensuing possession to give SMU a five-point lead.
A minute later, Hernandez struck again with a 3-pointer as the shot clock was winding down, giving SMU a 54-48 lead with 3:33 left in the game. The Owls pulled to within two and tied the game 54-54 with just under a minute left on a put-back by Christal Porter. The Mustangs came out of a timeout with 38 seconds left and the ball, but a Hernandez shot bounced off with 23 seconds left. Porter came up with the rebound for Rice after it was batted around, and Brittany Carter hit the game-winning layup with eight seconds left. Filmore had a look at a game-winning three, but it didn’t fall.
SMU finished the game shooting 38.3-percent from the field, but went just 5-of-13 from the free throw line. Rice shot just 30.4-percent from the field, but went 11-of-12 from the charity stripe for the two-point advantage.
The Mustangs return home to host Houston on Thursday. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
