The SMU women's basketball team returns to Moody Coliseum Wednesday night when it hosts No. 23/22 South Florida. The Mustangs are coming off back-to-back road games, but play three of the next four at home. Fans can listen to the game on KAAM 770 AM in the Dallas area, and SMU athletics will stream the game online.
ABOUT SMU
The Mustangs are coming off a 66-45 win at Houston Saturday, and are 11-8 overall with a 2-4 record in the American Athletic Conference.
Alicia Froling leads the team and ranks eighth in the conference with 15.2 points per game, and is averaging a league-high 10.8 rebounds.
McKenzie Adams is also averaging double figures, scoring 12.0 points per game. SMU is second in the league in field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to a 35.6 shooting percentage, trailing only No. 1 Connecticut's 35.2 percent. The Mustangs average a league-high 43.3 rebounds per game, and have 115 blocks, averaging 6.1 per game, first in the league and 12th in the NCAA.Â
SCOUTING No. 23/22 SOUTH FLORIDA
The Bulls are 15-3 overall, 4-1 in The American, falling at No. 1 UConn in their only conference loss. Kitija Laksa is third in the conference with 19.1 points per game, trailing only a pair of UConn players. The sophomore is second with 58 made 3-pointers, shooting 39.5 percent from outside the arc. Maria Jespersen (14.7) and Ariadna Pujol (14.3) also average double figures scoring. As a team, USF is outscoring opponents 75.2-59.3, and defeated Saint Francis 129-80 earlier this season.Â
SERIES HISTORY
The Mustangs are 0-8 all-time against the Bulls, playing six regular-season American Athletic Conference games, as well as a 73-60 defeat in the conference tournament last season. The two teams first faced each other in a tournament in Las Vegas on Dec. 19, 2010, when the Bulls won 61-55. This is the fourth matchup in Moody Coliseum.Â
LAST TIME OUT
Alicia Froling scored her 1,000th career point as part of a 20-point, 13-rebound performance to lead the SMU women's basketball team to a 66-45 victory at Houston Saturday afternoon in Hofheinz Pavilion.
The Mustangs snapped their four game losing streak and improved to 11-8 overall and 2-4 in the American Athletic Conference, while the Cougars dropped to 8-11 overall (1-5 AAC).
McKenzie Adams continued her hot streak, finishing with 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting after a career-high 32 points at Cincinnati.
LOOKING AHEAD
The Mustangs play at Tulsa Saturday night on ESPN3 before hosting Memphis and UCF in back-to-back home games on the American Digital Network.Â
MOODY MAGIC
SMU went 6-0 at home in non-conference games, and opened conference play with a 64-47 win agianst Cincinnati to improve to 7-0 in Moody Coliseum. The Mustangs are 7-2 at home. The SMU men's basketball team also went undefeated at home in non-conference play and won its first four conference home games, improving to 13-0 in Moody Coliseum. The SMU volleyball team went 11-2 in Moody Coliseum on its way to a second straight conference championship. Overall, the tenants of Moody Coliseum are 31-4 this year, an 88.6 win percentage.Â
UNDER NEW LEADERSHIP
For the first time since 1991, SMU has a new head coach on the sidelines.
Travis Mays was announced as the fourth head coach in program history on April 7, 2016, after the retirement of Rhonda Rompola, who spent 25 seasons as the head coach of the Mustangs. Mays worked for three Hall of Fame coaches during 12 seasons as a collegiate assistant, helping guide teams to eight NCAA Tournament appearances with a trip to the Final Four with LSU in 2008. A 1990 second-round NBA draft pick out of Texas, Mays' staff includes fellow Longhorns
Edwina Brown and
Amie Smith Bradley, and associate head coach
Mike Brandt, who spent 14 seasons as the head coach at USC Aiken.
ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS
McKenzie Adams was named American Athletic Conference Newcomer of the Year after leading the Mustangs in scoring with 13.4 points per game last season. She scored a season-high 24 points against Kansas, and reached double figures in 25 of 31 games.
Alicia Froling was named to the All-American Athletic Conference Third Team, finishing the year averaging 12.3 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. She set a school record with 22 rebounds at Cincinnati, and also scored a career-high 33 points against the Bearcats. Froling was also named to the All-American Athletic Conference Preseason Team.
THE AMERICAN PRESEASON RANKINGS
SMU was picked to finish fifth in the conference by the league's coaches, behind four-time defending national champion Connecticut, Temple, USF and Tulane, respectively. SMU returns two all-conference honorees among nine returning letterwinners.
ACADEMIC SUCCESS
SMU's football, men's basketball and women's basketball programs had a record-setting fall semester in the classroom. The football and women's basketball teams set program-best cumulative grade-point-averages while men's basketball reached its highest cumulative GPA since 2004.
ANNUAL BLOCK PARTY
As a freshman,
Alicia Froling recorded 54 blocks, surpassing Sarah Davis' mark of 53 blocks during the 2005-06 season. After breaking a record that stood for nine seasons, the Australian's name stayed at the top of the list for only one year. Fellow Australian and sophomore
Stephanie Collins posted 73 blocks in her first full season. Froling is third in school history in blocks with 125, while Collins has 116, fourth at SMU. The duo is the first pair of teammates of the same class to each record 100 blocks in program history. The last player to eclipse the century mark was Janielle Dodds, who finished with 109 blocks from 2004-08. Sarah Davis holds the school record with 180 blocks from 2003-06.
TEXAS TIES
SMU's roster includes 10 of 14 student-athletes from the state of Texas, with nine who have hometowns in the DFW metroplex. Three of the Mustangs four coaches also have roots in Texas with head coach
Travis Mays, assistant coaches
Edwina Brown and
Amie Smith Bradley all attending the University of Texas. The trio all spent time on staff at Texas, and Brown also coached at TCU before coming to the Hilltop.Â
INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
Alicia Froling represented Australia at the 2015 FIBA U19 Women's World Championships in Russia, winning a Bronze medal with the team, her second career medal at the World Championships with Australia. A native of Queensland, Australia, Froling averaged 8.1 points per game, reaching double-figures twice, including a tournament-high 19 points during group play. She also averaged 6.9 rebounds, and shot just under 70 percent from the free throw line.
Stephanie Collins also represented Australia at the 2012 World University Games.
DEFENSE LEADS THE WAY
SMU is second in the conference in field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to a 35.6 shooting percentage, trailing on No. 1 Connecticut's 35.2 percent. The Mustangs lead the league with 823 rebounds, averaging 43.3 per game, 22nd in the NCAA. SMU has a league-best 573 defensive rebounds, ranking ninth in the NCAA with 30.2 per game. SMU leads The American with 115 blocks, ahead of Cincinnati's 80 and No. 1 Connecticut's 79.
Alicia Froling is tied for second in the conference with 29 blocks, while
Dai'ja Thomas has 27 and is tied for the league lead with 1.6 per game.
ALICIA FROLING
Alicia Froling became the 23rd player in SMU history with 20 points in a win at Houston Saturday, taking her career total to 1,016. The junior is the only player in the conference averaging a double-double with 15.2 points per game (8th - AAC) and a league-best 10.8 rebounds per game (14th - NCAA). She has scored at least 20 points five times this season and 12 times in her career, including a career-high 33 points at Cincinnati last season (Jan. 27). She is third all-time at SMU with 125 blocks, and ninth at SMU with  751 career rebounds. Froling also set an SMU single-game record with 22 rebounds against the Bearcats last season, the third highest in conference history (24 by UCF's Brittni Montgomery twice). Froling has 29 double-doubles in her career, third in program history.Â
McKENZIE ADAMS
McKenzie Adams has scored in double figures 13 times this season, including a career-high 32 points at Cincinnati. She finished with 17 at Houston, earning a mention on the league's Weekly Honor Roll after averaging 24.5 points in the two games. Adams is second on the team with 12.0 points per game, and averages 4.5 rebounds per game. She had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds at Colorado.Â
KIARA PERRY
After missing last season due to a back injury,
Kiara Perry is averaging 7.8 points per game and shooting 38.7 percent from the field. She has reached double figures five times, including a career-high 19 points against Prairie View A&M (Nov. 22). The junior leads the team in assists, 51, steals, 34, and also has 12 blocks. She has two double-doubles this season, scoring 17 points with a career-high 14 rebounds at Kansas (Nov. 16) and grabbing 10 rebounds against Prairie View.Â
STEPHANIE COLLINS
Stephanie Collins was second in The American and 36th in the NCAA with 73 blocks last season, breaking the SMU single-season record
Alicia Froling set with 54 blocks as a freshman in 2014-15. Collins posted 25 blocks in 20 games as a freshman. She has 116 blocks in her career, ranking fourth at SMU. The junior has blocked at least one shot in 10 of the last 12 games.
MORGAN BOLTON
Morgan Bolton was second on the team with 62 assists and averaged 5.7 points per game as the starting point guard in 2015-16. The junior scored at least 10 points seven times, including a career-high 15 points against then-No. 20 USF in the conference tournament. Bolton has 41 assists this season, and is averaging 5.5 points per game, scoring 12 against Tulane on a career-high four made 3-pointers to reach double figures for the fourth time this season. Bolton leads the team with 23 made 3-pointers, shooting 29.9 percent from behind the arc.
DAI'JA THOMAS
Dai'ja Thomas has scored at least 10 points five times this season, averaging 6.9 points per game. The sophomore has 27 blocks, tied for the league lead with 1.6 per game, and is averaging 6.0 rebounds. She recorded her first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds against Texas State in the season opener, and had 15 points with 11 rebounds against Grambling State.Â
RANKED OPPONENTS
SMU defeated No. 19 Texas A&M 54-53 at home on Dec. 3, beating a top-25 opponent for the first time since March 9, 2008, when the Mustangs upset No. 18 UTEP in the Conference USA championship game. After losses to No. 5 Mississippi State and No. 1 Connecticut, the Mustangs have two more games against teams currently ranked in the top 25, No. 1/1 Connecticut and No. 23/22 USF.Â
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