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Women’s Basketball Loses Nail-Biter in Houston
February 20, 2009
By Robby Gillespie
rgillespie@smu.edu
The Mustangs, led by 22 points from Delisha Wills, were up by eight at halftime, but were unable to hang on, falling to Houston, 75-73, at Hofeinz Pavillion Friday night.
Down two points with two seconds left, Brittany Gilliam’s inbound pass bounced off the backboard and through Haley Day’s hands on the final play. The Mustangs never got a shot off.
“I’m really not sure how we won, but we did,” said Houston Head Coach Joe Curl, whose team is now in a four-way tie for second place in Conference USA. “We just came up with big shots down the stretch.”
SMU (16-10, 9-4 C-USA) led most of the game until Houston took its first lead of the second half, 69-68, off a Courtney Taylor fast-break lay-up with 2:08 left.
The Mustangs regained the lead momentarily after Delisha Wills hit her 51st three pointer of the season.
The final points were scored on Porcshe Landry’s free throw with eight seconds left, putting Houston (17-8, 9-4 C-USA) up 75-73. Then LaShandra Hill brought the ball past half court and called timeout with two seconds remaining, before Gilliam’s incomplete pass.
Wills led the Mustangs with 22 points, one shy of her career high. She earned her third double-double of the season. Junior Brittany Gilliam finished with 20 points.
Houston’s Courtney Taylor scored 23 points and 14 rebounds. Taylor was only one steal away from becoming the fourth player in Houston history to earn a triple-double.
SMU led 41-33 at halftime after Brittany Gilliam hit a buzzer-beating three. The Mustangs maintained the eight point lead with under nine minutes left, until Houston cut the deficit down to one possession for the rest of the game.
SMU freshmen Christine Elliott finished with eleven points on 5-8 shooting, to become the third Mustang in double digits in the scoring column.
With a win, SMU could have taken a share of the top spot in the conference, but instead remain in a four-way tie for second place.
The Mustangs stay in Houston to take on the Rice Owls (7-19, 2-11 C-USA) Sunday at 2 p.m.
Listen to Robby Gillespie and Alan Rose’s archived broadcast of the game in the Sports Blog.
[...] in Conference USA, yet it became a sour but sweet trip. We faced the No. 3 team, Houston, which defeated us with two seconds left to drop us out of first [...]