Men's and Women's Basketball teams victorius in opening games

The SMU Men's and Women's Mustang Basketball teams won the opening games of their 2012-13 seasons in Moody Coliseum over the weekend.

Sunday marked Larry Brown's debut as head coach of the Men's Team, who defeated Loyola Marymount 73-58. SMU's Nick Russell scored 19 points, while Ryan Manuel added 14 points, Shawn Williams had 12 and Jalen Jones finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

The Men's Team travels to Fort Worth next to face arch-rival TCU on Thursday, Nov. 15. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on FoxSports Southwest (FSSW). 

Brown was named head men's basketball coach at SMU on April 19, 2012. He arrived on the Hilltop as the only head coach to win both an NCAA title and an NBA Championship, having won an NBA title with the Detroit Pistons in 2004 and an NCAA title with Kansas in 1988. Brown was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach on Sept. 27, 2002.

Brown is the sixth-winningest coach in NBA history with 1,098 career victories, and led his teams to 18 playoff appearances, eight 50-win seasons, seven division titles, three conference championships and one NBA Championship. Brown was most recently head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats and guided the Bobcats to the franchise's first-ever playoff appearance in 2010. Charlotte was the eighth different team he led to the postseason — an NBA record.

The SMU women's basketball team started the season Saturday with a dominant performance, defeating Alcorn State 76-46 in Moody Coliseum. Sophomore Destynee Hives-McCray finished with her first double-double, scoring 13 points with 10 rebounds, both career highs. Hives-Mcray was 4-of-10 from the field and 5-of-5 from the free throw line. Senior Alisha Filmore led the team with 14 points and had four assists and five of SMU's 13 steals.

The Mustangs defeated Texas Southern Monday night in Moody Coliseum 66-50. They face North Texas at 7 p.m. Thursday in Moody.

This year marks Rhonda Rompola's 22 season as head coach of the Women's Basketball Team. She has tallied a 367-236 mark, earning her 300th career victory on Jan. 13, 2008. The Women's annual Hoops for the Cure Classic is scheduled for Nov. 23 and 24.

All SMU basketball games are broadcast on the Mustangs Radio Network; which includes the flagship KAAM 770 AM in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and SMUMustangs.com. For season ticket information call 214-SMU-GAME (214-768-4263), visit SMUMustangs.com, call the Ticketmaster Charge-By-Phone line at 214-373-8000, or go to ticketmaster.com.

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