SMU basketball update: Almond Kill-Joy

Morris Almond's 29 Points Leads Rice Past SMU, 63-60

CUSA Fans SMU Correspondent Rick Atkinson brings you his latest SMU basketball update.

DALLAS - In the end, Rice’s Morris Almond, the nation’s third leading scorer, was just too much.

Donatas Rackauskas gets a bucket over Cliff Ghoram and Patrick Britton (41). The shot put SMU up, 15-11.

Held in check for much of the first half, Almond coolly sank two late threes to finish the Mustangs, 63-60, Saturday at Moody Coliseum. He scored the Owls’ final eight points, part of a 19-point second half outburst.

“You can’t make mistakes on Almond,” Doherty said. “If you overrun or don’t switch out properly, he makes you pay. He’s gonna make money playing this game.”

“He can go,” SMU’s Ike Ofoegbu said of Almond. “In the second half, we kinda lost him a little bit. He got open looks down the stretch – and he hit ‘em.”

SMU (13-11, 2-8) had one last chance, inbounding the ball with 10 seconds remaining. Brian Epps took a pass from Jon Killen at the top of the key and lofted a three that sailed right, bouncing off the rim as the buzzer sounded.

“Brian was the first option,” Doherty said, “and quite frankly, he got a reasonable look, when everybody in the gym knew … we had to go for a three.”

Tied Late

Morris Almond goes down after a collision with Ike Ofoegbu (10).

Jon Killen’s three tied it for SMU, 57-57, with two minutes left. After Almond answered with a three, Killen drove the lane for two and was fouled. His free throw knotted it at 60 and Moody was rocking with 90 seconds to go.

Again, Almond quieted the crowd with a dagger three from the corner at 1:14, one that eventually turned out to be the game-winner. Killen’s subsequent three to tie was off, and Lorenzo Williams rebounded for Rice. Soon, Almond had the ball and Doherty chose not to foul the 85-percent free throw shooter as the seconds ticked under 0:20.

“Fouling him is like giving somebody two points,” Doherty said. Almond’s jumper missed, setting the stage for Epps’ final shot.

SMU shot 52 percent in the first half and 34 percent in the second, including 18 percent from beyond the arc. Rice (13-10, 6-4) shot 40 percent in the first half and 57 after the break.

Almond finished with 29 points, including 4-of-8 from 3-point range and 9-of-10 free throws. Williams had 14 points for the Owls.

For SMU, Ofoegbu had a career-high 12 rebounds and team-high 16 points. Epps and Dez Willingham had nine points each. Devon Pearson collected nine boards.

There were seven lead changes in the second half.

Good Match-up

SMU led, 34-28, at the half, after leading by 12 at the 2:21 mark.

Said Doherty, “We played 18 minutes of the good basketball [in the first half], and let them slip in at the end and gave them some momentum.”

The Mustangs had 10 turnovers in the first half, but settled down and committed only five the rest of the way. SMU won the board battle, 31-25, and seemed to match-up well with the Owls.

“It was kind of nice, quite frankly, to play against a team that’s a traditional basketball team,” Doherty said. “ Houston is a bunch of guards that press and switch screens, and play a little bit of an organized street-ball. Memphis is a little bit like that, too.”

“It’s frustrating to invest and lose,” he said. “I’m proud of the guys. I thought they gave great effort. To me, it came down to: they made shots in the second half and we didn’t.”

Next game: Wednesday, Feb. 14, @ Marshall, 6:00 p.m.

Two after that: Saturday, Feb. 17, vs. East Carolina, 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 21 @ UTEP, 8 p.m.

Donatas Rackauskas (25) and Derrick Roberts double-team Paulius Packevicius.

Ronnie sez:

I think they’re just gonna have to keep playing hard, and, hopefully, some good things will happen before the end of the season.”

(Ronnie Perry has followed SMU hoops since 1957.)

SMU Basketball Notes:

• This 183 rd SMU-Rice game attracted 2,558 fans, SMU’s third largest home crowd of the season. (Tops, so far? UTEP, with 3,038.) SMU has played Rice more than any other team in its history. The SMU-TCU series is right there, at 182.

• Saturday’s game kept Doherty from attending the 25 th anniversary celebration for North Carolina ‘s 1982 NCAA Championship team. The team was honored during the UNC-Wake Forest game at Chapel Hill. Doherty’s former teammates Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins, James Worthy, and head coach Dean Smith were there.

• “I was very disappointed that I couldn’t get to the reunion today,” Doherty said. “That’s a big part of my life. I think as you get older, you appreciate those moments a lot more than you do when you’re younger.”

• Since Doherty couldn’t go, let’s bring the reunion to him. How about SMU’s final home game – Memphis - on March 3? MJ, Dean Smith in the house? Hello, marketing?

• Derrick Roberts scored two points in 12 minutes against Rice. “Derrick’s knee didn’t respond well after the Houston game,” Doherty said. “He struggled in practice the last couple of days. He wasn’t quite himself tonight.”

• Senior Donatas Rackauskas was recently named to ESPN The Magazine’s Academic All-District 6 in the University Division, and is nominated as an Academic All-American. He has a 3.88 grade point average in graduate school and will complete his masters in accounting in May.