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After trailing by 11 points at halftime, the SMU Mustangs (4-1) rallied in the second to top the West Virginia Mountaineers (2-2) 70-58 in the opening game of the Fort Myers Tip-Off at Suncoast Credit Union Arena in Fort Myers, Florida.
The Mountaineers paired an effective 2-3 zone with 20 first-half points between Quinn Slazinski and Jesse Edwards to lead 36-25 at halftime. But a 17-5 run by SMU early in the second half eventually gave the Mustangs their first lead of the game, 42-41.
SMU (4-1) took the lead for good on a Chuck Harris step-back jumper with 10:54 remaining that sparked a 22-8 run. Eight players scored for SMU during the stretch that included Ricardo Wright's two 3-pointers and Keon Ambrose-Hylton's six points as the Mustangs stretched their advantage to 68-55 with 2:50 to play.
SMU deployed 11 different players Monday, wearing down WVU and leveraging a 45-22 second-half differential to a win.
The Mustangs' biggest lead of the night was 14 points, 70-56, before a bucket by Slazinski gave the night it's final score.
For SMU, Phelps led the way with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Chuck Harris added 12, as did Ricardo Wright coming off the bench.
Keon Ambrose-Hylton reached double figures with 10.
Jesse Edwards scored 18 for West Virginia, a game-high, while Slazinski scored 13, the only other WVU player to reach double figures.
The Mustangs shot 48.3% on the day, and 60% (18 of 30) in the second half alone.
"That second half, I worried with the game plan I envisioned them having with their deep rotation, athleticism and the way they get up and down the floor and how we'd manage that late in the game," West Virginia coach Josh Eilert said. "I thought we had a pretty good first half. We rebounded it well but to be honest, a lot of those shots they were taking were uncontested.
"They started falling for them in the second half and we weren't good enough late in the game with a short bench to match their physicality and the way they run out and try to get easy points," Eilert added.
Fatigue played a role in the Mountaineers' night. One byproduct was 61.9% free throw shooting, WVU going 13-21 at the line.
West Virginia had a seven-man rotation Monday, with Seth Wilson and Patrick Suemnick coming off the bench. Wilson finished with eight rebounds, playing 33 minutes off the pine for WVU.
In the second half, Eilert was taking timeouts simply to give his players some rest.
"That's where we're at with timeouts it seems like," Eilter said. "I can read them and their exhaustion levels. We're really only playing six guys with our backup freshman point guard (Jeremiah Bembry) being banged up the last couple of days."
The Mountaineers shot 26% (7 of 27) from the floor in the second half and 37% (20 of 54) overall.
15 WVU turnovers led to 16 SMU points Monday, and the Mustangs' bench outscored the Mountaineers by a 19-11 margin.
"We really couldn't get our defense set because we weren't getting good looks," Eilert said. "We were going to control this game on the offensive end by taking care of the ball and getting good shots to get our defense set."
West Virginia did out-rebound SMU 39-33, though the Mustangs' second half was better in that regard as well, grabbing 22 of their 33 boards in the second.
Tonight's game was the first-ever meeting between these two schools.
West Virginia will continue its four-day visit to Fort Myers with a matchup against Virginia on Wednesday on 6 p.m.
Virginia lost it's own opening game of the Fort Myers Tip-Off, the Cavaliers defeated by Wisconsin.
Both WVU and SMU also return home for games on Sunday. West Virginia plays Bellarmine and SMU plays UL Monroe.