SMU scoring slump continues in loss at USF

For the second-straight game the SMU basketball team’s offense struggled in Sunday’s loss at South Florida in Tampa.

The Mustangs tied their lowest shooting percentage on the season and shot under 50% from the free throw line for the third time this year.

It is the second time this season SMU has lost back-to-back games

Score: USF 79, SMU 68

Record: 19-9, 10-5

Next Game: Saturday vs. UTSA, 2 p.m. (ESPN+)

Player of the Game: If it wasn’t for Ricardo Wright, the offense would have struggled even more than it already did. He made four of SMU’s five 3-pointers, to finish with a team-high 16 points, while adding one of only seven assists on the day.

Leading Scorers: Wright (16), Sam Williamson (12, seven rebounds, four steals), Zhuric Phelps (11, nine rebounds), Tyreek Smith (11).

Sequence of the Game: With the SMU offense struggling to score, Wright hit back-to-back 3-pointers and then a third to tie the game at 23-all with 3:57 left in the first half. But USF answered by scoring the next seven points and a 9-1 run to go back up by eight. It would be an eight-point game at halftime with a basket just before the buzzer. Williamson scored to open the second half to pull within six, but that was as close as the game would get the rest of the night.

The rest of the story: Even though SMU never went away, it was never able to fully get back into the game. The Mustangs pulled within seven points on five occasions, two coming in the first two minutes of the second half, but never got any closer. In fact, two of the last three times SMU pulled within seven USF answered with a 3-pointer to go back up by 10. One of those times, the Mustangs got a stop and missed a shot to pull within five before.

Notable Stat I: The Mustangs were held to 26 points in the first half. It was the fewest points scored in a first half by the Mustangs since 23 in the first 20 minutes against Louisiana-Monroe back on Nov. 26. SMU would go on to score 47 in the second half of the victory. That wasn’t the case Sunday.

Notable Stat II: SMU left 16 points at the free throw line, going just 15-of-31 which was the third-lowest percentage from the stripe this season at 48.4%, in an 11-point loss. It wasn’t just the free throw line. SMU matched a season-low 33.8% shooting from the floor and 25% from the 3-point line, seventh-worst this season. The Mustangs also only had seven assists 24 made shots while committing eight turnovers.

Notable Stat III: SMU dominated the glass, out-rebounding USF 45-32 overall and 27-4 on offensive rebounds. That led to 39 second-chance points, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the rest of the offensive issues.

Final Word: This was a chance for the Mustangs to respond after a disappointing result on Thursday night and instead return from the two-game Florida road trip with two losses. SMU’s offensive issues were exposed in both games. SMU falls to 3-5 on the road in AAC play, dropping to fifth in the conference standings. Jalen Smith started in place of BJ Edwards, who only played seven minutes, finishing with no points on no shots, no assists and one turnover. The extra practice time has to be put to good use without a midweek game this week. The Mustangs are already outside of the Top 4 in the standings that earn a bye into the AAC tournament quarterfinals and can’t afford to slip up with home games against UTSA and East Carolina coming up.

Coach Lanier said: “(Shooting) wasn’t our problem in the game, per say. It was a byproduct of, you used the word a couple games ago, ‘disposition.’ My message to the team was, we’ve been spoiled. Things have been moving along pretty good and we haven’t had a ton of adversity. We’ve had some disappointments along the way, but we haven’t had any real sustained adversity. We had a two-game losing streak and then we responded with a six-game winning streak. But the level that we need to play at, there’s a gap between where we are and where we want to be and we’ve faced that the last two games. With that information, what are we going to do with it. My message to the team is, ‘this is as big a week as we’ve had all year to get better. We’re going to take a couple days off and then Wednesday we’re going to have the best practice of the season and then we’ve got a three-game season ahead of us and we’ve got business to take care of on Saturday and we’ve got to use this information we have as an opportunity to get better.'”

“… We were playing uphill and they were getting what they wanted and dominos started falling. They’re getting exactly what they do offensively and we were playing on our heels all game. We never really got out in transition.”