At one point, the women’s basketball team was down by 15 points in the first half against Southern Methodist. By halftime, they cut their scoring deficit to an eight point difference (42-34). 

The Shockers came out with the win by beating the SMU Mustangs 73-65 on Jan. 18 inside Charles Koch Arena. 

The women had four players score in double figures against the Mustangs. Sophomore guard Shamaryah Duncan led in scoring with 18 points. Senior forward Jane Asinde scored 15 points and junior point guard DJ McCarty scored 14.  

Senior guard Curtessia Dean scored 16 points and recorded six rebounds. Head coach Keitha Adams said this is the best game she’s seen Dean play all season. Dean snagged an offensive rebound in the second half that was key to the Shockers maintaining their lead. 

“I would say this… I’ve never had a player that’s had a good rebounding game and not have a good game,” Adams said. 

Dean said she was surprised with how well her shots were falling tonight. At one point, Adams told her to pick it up and give her a reason not to take her out of the game.  

“Like coach [Adams] said, I had to pick it up and break out of my shell,” Dean said. “It’s all go from here. I can’t let up. No looking back.” 

Adams said in the first half her team wasn’t rebounding or handling the ball well. In the second half, the Shockers started to out rebound SMU and only recorded 13 turnovers. By the end of the game, the Shockers out-rebounded SMU 37-35.  

“We really took care of the ball and I told our team if we take better care of the ball, and have good shot selection we will score more points and we did score more points,” Adams said. 

The Shockers win against the Mustangs broke a four game conference losing streak. Their last win came on Dec. 30 against Cincinnati. Most recently, they lost to Central Florida on Jan. 15, 59-56.  

“This feels really good for us because the last two weeks have been tough,” Adams said. “You know we lost a tough one at Central Florida and I think that, that’s really been stinging us and you know I told our team the only way we are going to feel better about things is us getting this win tonight.” 

The Shockers will play East Carolina on Jan. 21 at 2 p.m. inside Charles Koch Arena. The ECU Pirates are 4-2 in conference play after beating Cincinnati 61-53 on Jan. 18. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.