Feb. 15, 2009
Box score in PDF Format 
Season stats in PDF Format
DALLAS (SMU) - The SMU women's basketball team turned in its best defensive performance of the season, and the Mustangs' bench outscored UAB's reserves, 37-18, as SMU cruised to an 81-51 victory over visiting UAB Sunday afternoon at Moody Coliseum.
The victory improved the Mustangs' record to 16-9 overall and 9-3 in conference games, and kept the Ponies within a game of C-USA leader Southern Miss, which won Sunday at Marshall. UAB slipped to 10-15 overall, 5-7 in C-USA games.
The SMU defense was stingy from the start, as the Mustangs allowed UAB to shoot just .261 from the floor in the first half en route to a 41-19 lead at the intermission. Even more important, the Ponies held UAB's Britney Jones - Conference USA's top scorer - to just 11 points on 3-of-18 shooting.
The SMU offense was led by juniors Brittany Gilliam, who scored a game-high 13 points, and Jillian Samuels, who added 12. Included in her dozen points were three three-pointers, marking the eighth game this season in which she has hit at least three from long range. With one more, she'll tie the total of 51 she hit in her freshman season, the eighth-highest single-season total in SMU history.
But the story of the game could have been the play of the Ponies' five freshmen: centers Heidi Brandenburg and Christine Elliott, forward Alicia Mitcham, and guards Morgan Shell and Samantha Mahnesmith, who entered Sunday's game averaging almost 9 minutes, 15 seconds per game. Against the Blazers, however, the quintet averaged nearly 18 minutes of playing time, and they made the time on the floor pay off: Brandenburg led the way, establishing new career highs in points (10), rebounds (5), field goals (3) and free throws (4), and tying her career high with a game-high two blocked shots.
The Ponies now head back on the road for the last time in the regular season, for games at 7 p.m. Friday at Houston and at 2 p.m. Sunday at Rice; both games can be heard live on KAAM (770 AM), and Sunday's game against the Owls can be seen live on CBS College.
For a complete schedule and ticket information, log on to SMUMustangs.com or call 214-SMU-GAME.
