SMU Downs Houston
DALLAS — As the only undefeated team in the country, eighth-ranked SMU is learning to enjoy wearing a bullseye on its back.
The latest team to take aim at the Mustangs was Houston, which had SMU on its heels much of Tuesday night before falling 77-73.
Point guard Nic Moore kept SMU (18-0, 7-0 American Athletic Conference) from sinking, finishing with 23 points.
It was Moore who inspired his teammates with a halftime speech after the Mustangs needed an 8-0 run to climb into a 34-34 tie at the break.
“He just said it’s got to be fun for us,” SMU forward Markus Kennedy said. “We’re in a position that no other team in the country is in, we’ve got to embrace it.”
Kennedy had 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Mustangs, while guard Sterling Brown scored 15 and forward Ben Moore added 10.
“We’re going to take everybody’s best shot,” SMU coach Larry Brown said. “I never thought we’d be a big game for people. At UCLA or Kansas or North Carolina, you kind of know. That’s their DNA and they thrive on that. This is something we’ve got to learn.”
Houston (13-5, 3-3) lost its third in a row.
The Cougars got 16 points from guard Damyean Dotson, 14 from
forward Danrad Knowles and 11 from guard Galen Robinson Jr.
However, Cougars guard Rob Gray Jr., who leads the AAC with an average of 17.6 points per game, did not play.
“That’s just a personal thing to me, I don’t really want to go into it,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said when asked about Gray’s absence. “Part of a coach’s job is to teach life lessons.”
The AAC’s two highest-scoring offenses traded blows throughout the game, with SMU ultimately outshooting Houston, 49 percent to 46.8 percent.
Houston won the rebounding battle in the first half, 22-13, but SMU cut it to a 37-32 deficit by game’s end.
Despite being outrebounded, the Mustangs edged Houston in second-chance points, 21-18, and committed fewer turnovers, 12-9. SMU scored 15 points off turnovers, while Houston managed just two.
“We had a chance to beat them tonight, but they didn’t let us because they don’t beat themselves,” Sampson said. “You have to beat SMU if you’re going to beat them, because they’re not going to contribute to their own demise.”
SMU last trailed 57-55 with 7:25 left. The Mustangs kept it a one-possession game until Nic Moore hit back-to-back shots for a 63-59 lead with four minutes left.
Larry Brown admitted he began to think this might be the end of SMU’s winning streak when Dotson sank a 3-pointer that bounced high off the rim before falling in with 2:54 remaining.
That basket put Houston within 65-64. However, Ben Moore tipped in a shot and guard Sterling Brown buried a 3-pointer with 1:36 remaining to put SMU up 70-66.
A lay-in by Kennedy pushed SMU’s lead to 72-67 with 41 seconds left.
Nic Moore and Brown each knocked down a pair of free throws in the final 11 seconds to secure the win.
The Cougars came out on fire to build a 24-16 lead midway through the first half.
Dotson scored six of his eight points in the first half during Houston’s initial burst.
At one point, the Cougars had outrebounded SMU 14-3 and were outshooting the Mustangs 64 percent to 44 percent. Those numbers were still in Houston’s favor when it led 34-26 with 3:02 left in the half.
SMU finally adjusted to Houston’s quickness and went on an 8-0 run to close out the half. Nic Moore, who led the Mustangs with 11 points in the half, hit a fade-away jumper at the buzzer to tie the game at intermission.
