A Game Too Long

SMU Succumbs To Tulsa Late, Eyes 20-Loss Season

DALLAS – If the college game were 30 minutes long, you could add three conference wins to SMU’s record. Thirty-five-minutes? Add one more. Thirty-eight? Another.

But, alas, those final minutes - the Mustangs’ Bermuda Triangle of sorts - are played, and Saturday, for the second straight game and fifth time in league play this season, SMU lost after having a lead in the final 10 minutes - this one, a 74-64 downer to the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (20-9, 10-4).

With the loss, and two games remaining - Southern Miss and Houston - plus the C-USA tournament, the Mustangs (8-19, 2-12) are staring at consecutive 20-loss seasons for the first time in thirteen years.

SMU's Paul McCoy, left, works in the first half as Bamba Fall, right, battles Tulsa's Ray Reese. McCoy led the Mustangs with 16 points.

“We’ve got to learn to finish off games,” said SMU coach Matt Doherty. “And that comes through experience. But to [lose] time and time again, it kind of rips your gut out a little bit.”

“There’s a 10-minute period of the game – we’ve got to get over that hump.”

Freshman Paul McCoy led SMU with 16 points, and Mohammad Faye and Bamba Fall each had 12. Tulsa’s top scorer, Ray Reese, finished with 24 and Ben Uzoh collected 20. Jerome Jordan (7-0, 245) led all rebounders with 13.

SMU led by 14 in the first half and by nine at halftime before the all too familiar collapse. The game featured six ties and seven lead changes.

Tulsa smoked SMU, 21-12, in offensive rebounds. “To me, that was the game,” Doherty said. “You give up an offensive rebound, the defense breaks down, and then [they] kick it out for open shots. That seemed to happen several times. It gave Reese and Uzoh some open 3s there in the second half.”

Wojcik Pleased With Bench

Tulsa coach Doug Wojcik said previous setbacks have been instructive for his team. “I think we really learned from our early conference losses on the road, Tulane and Central Florida, where everyone needs to contribute. Our bench isn’t that deep, but yet it was deep enough [tonight] to go in there and give us some great minutes.” Wojcik praised the play of senior Sam Mitchell, who came off the bench for four offensive boards in 14 minutes.

Tulsa had eight bench points and 11 rebounds to SMU’s five and six, respectively. Papa Dia and Frank Otis combined for no points and two boards (Dia) in 17 minutes. Mike Walker had all five bench points for SMU.

SMU hurt Tulsa inside, especially in the first half, with Bamba Fall smashing home two big dunks. For the game, the Mustangs outscored the Hurricane in the paint, 26-16.

Tulsa, with no free throws in the first half, hit 22 of 26 (84 percent) in the second. SMU was 7 of 11, overall, from the line.

On the night, SMU out-shot Tulsa 44 to 35-percent from the field, but the Mustangs’ touch disappeared in the second half after a 51.6-percent effort in the first. SMU was 0-10 from 3-point range after the break. Robert Nyakundi, who popped two 3s in the first half, later went cold, finishing 2 of 10 from beyond the arc.

Tulsa shot a solid 40 percent from downtown, hitting 5 of 14 in the first half and 5 of 11 in the second.

Bumblin’, Stumblin’

If one play stuck the Mustangs between the eyes, it was Reese’s dagger-3 for Tulsa with 3:46 left, breaking a 61-all tie. The “assist” from Jordan was the real killer: a bumblin’, stumblin’ three or four steps through the lane, without dribbling, before passing to Reese. Boos rained down for the no-call – and, interestingly, the Mustangs never recovered. Tulsa rolled, 10-3, the rest of the way.

A happy moment in the first half. SMU led, 26-20 .... What?

Can a play like that affect a young team? “I think so,” Doherty said. “Again, that comes down with some mental toughness that comes with maturity. … After a play like that, they may be deflated a little bit, where a more experienced team will say, ‘Alright, that’s just two points, or that’s just three points. We can get that back.’”

There was confusion between Doherty and his players with 25 seconds left and SMU down, 69-62. Uzoh grabbed a rebound under SMU’s basket and, as the Mustangs attacked to foul, Doherty was yelling, “Don’t foul!” - to no avail.

Doherty explained, “As the ball is coming off the rim, I’m saying, ‘Foul!’ Then, Uzoh gets it and Uzoh’s one of their better foul shooters, so I’m like, ‘Don’t foul!’ It’s hard on the kids to hear, ‘Foul’ and they’re fouling, and it’s hard to hear the second comment, ‘Don’t foul.’ That was a little frustrating but nothing to their fault.”

Doherty said Tulsa’s experience played a big role down the stretch. “Ben Uzoh’s been in this situation before. He knows when to tuck the ball under his hip and call play number two and get everybody in line.”

“We start four new players and six of our top seven players are in their first year in the program. When those guys mature, we’ll learn how to finish things off.” The numbers backed Doherty’s point: Tulsa played 49 senior minutes to SMU’s 31 and eight true freshmen minutes to SMU’s 54. Junior minutes favored The Hurricane, 89 to 61.

Doherty emphasized SMU is getting better. “If we weren’t getting better, we wouldn’t have had UTEP down fifteen points in the second half – at UTEP. That’s one of the tougher places to play and they’re a very good team.”

Five Years?

Doherty also said it sometimes takes five years to build a winner, noting that Davidson College, where he was an assistant coach for three years, took five years to win 20 games.

“When Mike Krzykewski was rebuilding Duke,” he said, “they had a losing record in their third year. And then in the fifth or sixth year, they went to the Final Four.”

“In North Carolina (where Doherty head coached for three years) we built it,” he said, “and in the fifth year, they won the national championship.”

“You’ve got to build some depth,” he said, “where maybe in a few years a guy like Paul McCoy is coming off the bench, as opposed to starting. A guy like Robert Nyakundi’s coming off the bench, versus starting.”

Doherty likened the process to building a house. “We’re not there yet,” he said. “But the frame’s up. The roof’s up. We’ve got to get the trees in and things like that.”

Southern Miss visits on Wednesday for SMU’s final home game of the season. “We want to send (lone senior) Bamba out with a win,” said Doherty.

Next Two for SMU:

• Wednesday, March 4, 7 p.m., Southern Miss

• Saturday, March 7, 7 p.m., @ Houston

SMU Basketball Notes:

• SMU men’s basketball last lost 20+ games in successive seasons in 1994-95 (coach John Shumate, 7-20) and 1995-96 (coach Mike Dement, 8-20). Shumate, with 21 losses in 1993-94, is SMU’s last coach with consecutive 20-loss seasons.

• Conference losses SMU led this year with 10:00 to play: ECU, @UTEP, Tulsa; with 5:00 left: @ Marshall; with 2:00 left: @UAB.

• Congratulations to coach Rhonda Rompola and the SMU women’s basketball team for wrapping up the C-USA title on Saturday with a win over UTEP.