SMU Women Fall To No. 1 UConn
DALLAS (SMU) – In front of a record crowd of 4,091 fans, the SMU Mustangs hung tough with the No. 1 Connecticut Huskies through most of the first half, but ultimately fell, 81-48, at Moody Coliseum on Tuesday night. The attendance marked the highest for a regular season game in the program’s history at Moody Coliseum.
SMU dropped to 16-11 (7-9 The American), while UConn improved to 29-0 (16-0). SMU had already clinched a first-round bye in the conference tournament with its win at Memphis on Saturday.
Korina Baker scored the opening bucket of the game on a layup 1:42 into the first half. Baker would also hit a three at the 16:59 mark to tie the game at 7-7. The Huskies would answer with eight straight points, but SMU would cut the lead back to five with a three from Kiara Perry with 11:44 left in the period. Keena Mays also kept the Huskies to within five with a three-pointer of her own with 7:48 to go, making the score 20-15. Connecticut’s Brianna Banks got a layup at the other end, but hers was answered by an Akil Simpson reverse layup after a low-post spin move to make it 22-17 with
6:52 remaining. After the last media timeout of the first half at 3:22, the Huskies went on a 15-0 run to take a 37-17 lead into halftime.
Mays would total two three-pointers for the game, moving to within five of the single-season school record held by Jillian Samuels, who drained 72 threes in the 2007-08 campaign. Mays finished with 13 points, scoring in double-digits for the 26th time in 27 games this season. The senior now needs just 23 points to reach the 1,000-point plateau at SMU. Simpson also scored 10-plus with 11, marking her 24th contest in double figures. Simpson now has 1,186 points in her career, and needs just two to tie Samuels for 14th all-time at SMU. Perry and Raven Short each knocked down two three-pointers for the Mustangs.
The Huskies were led by 25 points from Bria Hartley and an additional 23 from Breanna Stewart. UConn shot 53.4 percent from the field for the game, including 62.5 percent in the first half.
The Mustangs will play their final road game of the regular season at USF on Saturday at 6 p.m. CST.
