A Jan. 11 loss to East Carolina was still fresh on the mind of the Mustangs. They responded in style Wednesday night.
UNIVERSITY PARK -- It wasn't close. It never truly was.
From the opening minute, SMU played with the mentality of a team that owed East Carolina from Jan. 11. And once the Mustangs took the lead early in the first half, the game became a runaway.
SMU cruised to an 84-64 American Athletic Conference victory at Moody Coliseum. The Mustangs earned their sixth victory in eight tries and, perhaps more importantly, added another conference win to its resume.
It wasn't hard to notice an SMU team that still had its 71-68 loss to East Carolina 11 days ago in the back of its mind. The Mustangs (14-4, 4-2 in AAC) had a 13-point lead in that first meeting in Greenville, North Carolina, only to squander it in the second half.
For a brief moment, it looked East Carolina -- a 27% 3-point shooting team who hit 11 3-pointers against SMU in the first meeting -- would have another solid shooting night. Brandon Suggs hit the first 3-pointer of the game.
But SMU went on a 10-0 run and immediately took control of the first half. The Mustangs earned their first double-digit lead on a Tyson Jolly 3-pointer with 13:47 left until halftime.
SMU led, 40-26, at the half. The Mustangs shot 54% from the field (55% for the game) and dominated the boards, 22-9, in the first 20 minutes (37-26 for the game) and the Pirates couldn't find an answer for SMU's offense. All nine Mustangs who earned playing time scored at least two points in the first half.
The closest East Carolina got in the second half was six, as the Pirates used a 12-1 run in a early moments of the half to put a dent in SMU's lead. But SMU managed to extend the lead with a 10-0 run of its own.
From there, it was all SMU. And it was a balanced SMU that got the job done on offense. Each player in the Mustangs' nine-man regular rotation finished with at least three points.
Jolly led the balanced attack with 17 points, while Kendric Davis had 15 points and nine assists. Ethan Chargois added 12 points off the bench and connected on 4 of 5 shots.
SMU now will prepare for big back-to-back road tests. The Mustangs have Memphis on Saturday, and then they will visit Cincinnati on Tuesday.
