The SMU men's basketball team wasted little time taking control of Wednesday's game at Notre Dame and never let it go in the 97-73 victory.

The Mustangs scored the first six points of the game and then scored nine straight for a 15-3 lead. They scored another 10 straight — as part of a 19-2 run — for a 25-5 advantage just over 10 minutes into the game.

"Very proud of our team," SMU head coach Andy Enfield said. "Our goal was to win our 20th game (Wednesday) and they did that. They came very focused, especially defensively in the first half. We're 20-6 right now and this team has really improved since the start of the season."

A big part of SMU's offensive outburst was Kario Oquendo. He scored 15 points in the first 11 minutes and was 6-for-6 from the floor, including 2-for-2 from the 3-point line, and made his only free throw attempt for a perfect first half. 

He would make a seventh shot before missing his first attempt of the game three and a half minutes into the second half. He finished a perfect 5-for-5 on two-point attempts and scored a season-high 25 points.

"He was able to put it on the floor and get to the rim, made some good plays for his teammates, had two assists, no turnovers," Enfield said. "Very efficient game for him. He made a couple 3s. Our three starting guards were 5-for-25 from the 3-point line (on Saturday) and (Wednesday) they all shot the ball well and played much better. Was very proud of them to bounce back like that because when you go on the road, you need performances and guys have to step up and play. Kario was great."

The Mustangs took a 50-25 lead into halftime. They shot 72.4% to get there, making 21 shots, while holding Notre Dame to under 32% with only 22 attempts. SMU had another 9-0 run in the second half to take its largest lead of the game, 34 points.

"We've had some other games like that, especially on the road, where we've come out like that," Enfield said. "And a couple of home games in the first half like that. We didn't expect to be up by 25 at halftime (Wednesday), but they earned it. They played very well together defensively, covering for each other, rotating. And then offensively we were able to share the ball and got some great shots."

The defense was especially important against one key Notre Dame player. Markus Burton came into the game averaging 22.9 points per game in ACC play and had 11 straight games scoring in double figures with nine of them being at least 20 points including a 32-point performance.

SMU held him to a season low two points, matching his total against Rutgers when he only played three minutes.

"We did a good job on (Burton) with the secondary defender running him off the 3-point line," Enfield said. "When he put the ball down in the midrange and got in the lane, we were able to rotate our bigs over and then cover down on the other guys. I thought they did a really good job of that in the first half. And then we were able to get out to their shooters."

The Mustangs also handled life without starting point guard Boopie Miller better than it did against Wake Forest on Wednesday. Part of that was shooting better as a team, part of that was the extra time to prepare for playing without him and part of it was getting Samet Yiğitoğlu, who scored 14 points, more involved.

"When Wake played the zone in the first half, we had five wide open 3s, we just missed all five," Enfield said. "When you play zone offense, you have to be able to make the 3 when you're open because they'll stay in it and pack it in the paint if you don't. (Wednesday) we shared the ball, we got the ball in the middle against the zone, we had dribble penetration and finished. Our zone offense, like our man, is a little streaky at times, we just have to make the right play."

SMU got 25 points off the bench, led by Yohan Traore with eight in 12 minutes in his first action back from injury, with AJ George adding seven, Tibet Görener and Jerrell Colbert with four each and Keon Ambrose-Hylton had two points and five rebounds.

"I thought they all came off the bench and gave us good minutes," Enfield said. "AJ George, Yohan came in after being out for two weeks with his injury, I thought he played well. Jerrell and Keon and Tibet gave us good minutes, as well. (Görener) has been playing point guard a lot in practice, so you can see he's very comfortable with the ball in his hands."

The Mustangs return home to face No. 17 Clemson on Saturday. The Tigers have won three straight — beating Duke, beating North Carolina by 20 and Florida State by 26 — and nine of their last 10. 

"They're very tough. They just beat Duke last week," Enfield said of Clemson. "They're big, they have shooting and they're really good defensively. It will be a great game at Moody Coliseum on Saturday afternoon."