SMU women’s basketball takes down UNT

by PegNews wire

UNT's take

The North Texas women’s basketball team dug itself into an early hole and came up short against SMU, 68-62, on Saturday afternoon in the Super Pit.

The Mean Green (5-4) has now lost its second straight and trails the Mustangs (6-1) in the series, 23-15.

Talicia Sanders scored a career-high 15 points in the loss. Brittney James and Amber Jackson joined her in double figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

SMU used an 11-0 run early in the game to take a 25-13 lead at the 9:14 mark in the first half. The Mustangs extended their lead to as many as 16 points with 4:44 left in the first period.

The Mean Green scored nine of the last 11 points of the first half to cut the lead to nine points, 34-25, at the half. NT was held to 27.3 percent shooting from the field in the first half.

North Texas outscored the Mustangs, 37-34, in the second period but could not overcome the first half deficit. After SMU took its largest lead of the second half, 50-34, North Texas went on a 20-10 run to cut the lead to six, 60-54, with 3:34 left in the game. The Mean Green stayed within single digits of the lead but ran out of time.

Four players led SMU in double figures. Delisha Wills led all scorers with 17 points. The Mustangs shot 44.8 percent from the field in the game and were 14 of 29 from the field in the first half.

North Texas returns to action on Tuesday, Dec. 4 when it faces Marshall at 7 pm in the Super Pit.

SMU's take

Sophomore forward Delisha Wills posted game highs with 17 points and 10 rebounds to lead four Mustangs in double-figure scoring as the SMU women's basketball team beat North Texas, 68-62, in Denton.

The victory was the sixth in a row for the Mustangs (6-1). The last time SMU won at least six games in a row was in the 2004-05 season, when the Ponies reeled off eight straight wins. UNT slid to 5-4.

Sophomore guard Jillian Samuels, senior post Janielle Dodds and senior forward Sharee Shepherd joined Wills with double-figure scoring totals, tallying 13, 11 and 10 points, respectively. Wills reached double figures for the fifth time in seven games.

The Ponies also put the clamps on UNT's top two scorers, limiting forward Amber Jackson to 10 points on 5-of-14 shooting, and holding guard Jo Hall to nine points on just 2-of-11 shooting.

The Ponies return home for a pair of home games this week, hosting Coppin (Md.) State at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 6, and hosting Texas-Arlington at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8.

Sources: UNT and SMU