Mustangs Notch 26-Point Road Win at Rice

SMU ends first half on 14-2 run, dominates Rice in second half with a strong finish

HOUSTON — The first half of Wednesday night’s game at Rice didn’t start off how the Mustangs had hoped. SMU found itself trailing its former Southwest Conference foe by nine points with 3:48 left in the first half before ending the half on a 14-2 run and three point halftime lead.

“Definitely not a first half we wanted,” Samuell Williamson said after the game. “The group did a great job of finishing the half, getting us back in the game, and getting the lead back at halftime.”

The Mustangs continued their dominance throughout the second half of the game, scoring 55 points in the half and leaving Houston with a 95-69 victory.

Mustangs Build Solid Class for ACC Debut Season Next Fall

“After halftime we were just able to get a lot more stops, got back in transition and made a lot of layups and easy shots in transition,” Williamson said.

Williamson was one of five SMU players to score double digits. Zhuric Phelps led the Mustangs with 16 points, Ricardo Wright had 15, Chuck Harris had 11 and Williamson and Keon Ambrose-Hylton each had 10.

“When we play together, we’re at our best,” Williamson said. “We did a lot better job of that in the second half than the first and the score showed that.”

Alem Huseinovic led Rice in scoring with 20 points, 14 of which came in the first half. Travis Evee had 14 points for the Owls and Mekhi Mason had eight.

SMU (16-7, 7-3 AAC) will host North Texas next at 1 p.m. Sunday. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU. You can listen to the game in DFW on KAAM-770 AM.

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