by PegNews wire

Senior center Janielle Dodds posted her seventh double-double of the year with 24 points and 10 rebounds.

Senior center Janielle Dodds posted her seventh double-double of the year and 37th of her career with 24 points and 10 rebounds, and sophomore guard Jillian Samuels added 20 points to lead the SMU women's basketball team to an 80-68 victory over Rice Thursday night at Moody Coliseum.

The victory improved the Mustangs to 20-6 on the season, and 10-3 in Conference USA games. The 20 victories tie the mark for the most wins in a regular season in the history of the program - a tie the Mustangs can break when they host the Houston Cougars at 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon. The Ponies won 20 games in the regular season once before, in the 1997-98 season that ended with an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

In addition to the milestone victory, several other notable numbers were posted by the Ponies:

• Dodds is closing in on the two most high-profile individual statistics in the SMU record books. After scoring 24 points, she now needs 25 more to break Karlin Kennedy's all-time mark.

• With her 10 rebounds, Dodds needs 20 boards to break Kennedy's career rebounding mark.

• Dodds' double-double was the 37th of her career, more than double the number of any other player in Conference USA. By comparison, runner-up Pauline Love of Southern Miss has 16 double-doubles.

• Samuels hit four three-pointers, giving her 58 this season - the fifth-highest single-season total in SMU history.

• Thursday's game marked the sixth time this season Samuels has hit at least four from behind the arc (and 11th time she has hit at least three in a game from long range).

Saturday's game against the Cougars, which can be heard (on a tape-delay basis, tipping off around 5 p.m.) on KKGM (1630 AM), will be the second meeting of the year between SMU and Houston. Dodds and sophomore forward Brittany Gilliam scored 17 points apiece Feb. 9 to lead the Mustangs to a 74-51 victory at Houston's Hofheinz Pavilion.

The game against Houston will be the last regular-season home game for the 2007-08 SMU seniors: Brittany Barker, Katy Cobb, Dodds, Katie Gross and Sharee Shepherd.

Source: SMU