Feb. 11, 2007

Box Score

DALLAS (SMU) - The SMU women's basketball team successfully used its aggressive defense to jump-start its offense and came away with a 65-48 win over visiting Marshall Sunday afternoon at Moody Coliseum on the campus of SMU. With the win, SMU improves to 14-10 (6-6 Conference USA) while the Thundering Herd drops to 14-11 overall (7-5 Conference USA).

In the first half, SMU opened the game with an overwhelming 12-2 run, but the Thundering Herd held SMU at the 14-point mark for over five minutes and closed the gap to five points (14-9) at the 10:41 mark. Despite shooting only 37.5% from the field, SMU collected 16 first-half points on 15 Marshall turnovers, and held the Thundering Herd to 33.3% shooting. SMU took extra momentum into the intermission as freshman Brittany Gilliam hit a lay-up as the halftime horn sounded.

In the second half, SMU maintained its defensive intensity and forced 10 more Marshall turnovers. SMU also found its shooting range, hitting 50% from the field in the half. Marshall did not back down, cutting the lead to as few as six points (43-37) at the 9:24 mark, but the Mustangs' defense turned into Mustang offense as SMU upped the lead to as many as 18 points - too much of a deficit for Marshall to overcome.

SMU's top scorer was junior Janielle Dodds with 14 points in 21 minutes of play, going 6-of-8 from the field and adding five rebounds. Freshman Delisha Wills contributed 11 points for SMU. For Marshall, Modulpe Ishola topped her team with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Meg Withrow added 10 points for the Thundering Herd.

The Mustangs continue their homestand this coming week when Rice visits Moody Coliseum Thursday night and Houston Saturday afternoon.