SMU hopes to ride the talents of Kendric Davis and Marcus Weathers when the Mustangs seek to stay perfect at home on Thursday against Southeastern Louisiana in Dallas.
Davis, who averaged 19 points, 7.6 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game last season, narrowly missed a triple-double (19 points, 10 assists, nine rebounds) on Monday night during a 95-48 win over Northwestern State.
Weathers posted a double-double in only 22 minutes of action, hitting 8 of 12 field-goal attempts, scoring 22 points and collecting 11 rebounds.
Emmanuel Bandoumel (14 points), Zach Nutall (13) and Stefan Todorovic (11) also scored in double figures.
The victory margin was SMU’s largest since 2015.
SMU (2-1) is 43-4 in home nonconference games under coach Tim Jankovich, who was pleased with Monday’s game that included 17 offensive rebounds.
“I’m mostly about our effort,” Jankovich said. “I don’t expect us to be solid yet … but if we’re going to have great effort and we’re going to have great unselfishness, we’ve got a chance in the long run to have a heck of a team.”
Bandoumel is averaging 11.7 points and converting 44.4 percent from 3-point range.
Southeastern Louisiana (2-1) takes a two-game winning streak into the game, having beaten Southeastern Baptist College and Paul Quinn College after a 70-67 loss at Tulane to begin the season.
The Lions set a school record and Southland Conference record with 19 successful 3-pointers in its 128-58 win over Southeastern Baptist.
“We’ve shot the ball well early on,” said coach David Kiefer, in his third year guiding SLU. “But I think some of our best style of basketball is when the ball is being thrown inside to the paint and playing through our bigs.
“We’ve got multiple bigs that can not only score the ball but are also really good and willing passers. We can mix it up and play different styles.”
Jalyn Hinton is one such big, averaging 10 points and six rebounds, and he complements 6-foot-9 Antonio Gordon (8.3 points, 6.3 rebounds).
–Field Level Media
