North Texas Loses To SFA

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NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Jordan Williams and North Texas spent the afternoon reeling in Stephen F. Austin, but the Lumberjacks had the answer for every Mean Green rally in a 59-48 win at William R. Johnson Coliseum on Sunday afternoon.

The senior led North Texas (4-4) with 15 points, and on three occasions helped claw his squad back from double-digit deficits. Each rally brought the Mean Green back to within two scores or less, but SFA was able to separate late and close the game with five free throws in the final 1:14.

“I’m proud of the fact that we made some plays to get back into this game, but we just turned it over too many times and you can’t do that against such a quality team like SFA,” said North Texas head coach Tony Benford. “We had our opportunities to take control of this game, but we simply made too many mistakes down the stretch.”

A Jeremy Combs free throw with 12:56 remaining capped an 8-0 Mean Green run and made it a three-point ballgame, 34-31. That’s when SFA answered with an 8-2 run that put the Jacks right back in the driver’s seat.

Down just six points with 3:51 remaining, North Texas couldn’t convert two looks at the bucket and SFA’s Thomas Walkup marched down the court and hit a dagger of a 3-pointer to that put things out of reach for NT.

North Texas did a nice job defending the SFA leading scorer, Jacob Parker, holding the 15.0 point per game scorer to just seven – four of which came on free throws in the final 32 seconds.

Overall, NT held the Jacks to 33.3 percent shooting, but turned the

ball over 18 times. SFA turned those 18 giveaways into 21 points.

Williams opened the game with a tough drive to the bucket to give NT an early lead, but the Mean Green wouldn’t hit another field goal for 6:23. That dry spell allowed SFA to open up a 9-2 edge with a trio of mid-range jumpers, and they would not relinquish that early lead for the remainder of the afternoon.