North Texas Men Fall In Last Home Game
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DENTON, Texas – A dreadful shooting performance was too much for the North Texas men to overcome Saturday afternoon against Louisiana-Lafayette, sending the Mean Green to a 57-53 loss and a setback in their effort to earn a top-five seed and a first-round bye in the upcoming Sun Belt Conference Basketball Championship.
North Texas hit just 19-of-65 field goal attempts, good for just 29 percent, and suffered through a crippling outing at the free-throw line, making just 45 percent on 11-of-24 shots in their final home game of the season. Alzee Williams had 12 points for North Texas and Tyler Hall had 10, but the Cajuns held Tony Mitchell to seven points and shut out Brandon Walton, as both were in foul trouble much of the game.
“I thought we had ample opportunities,” North Texas coach Johnny Jones said. “I thought the guys did a pretty good job of holding it together to give us an opportunity to get back in the game. The glaring thing is when we shoot 11 of 24 from the free-throw line, it’s going to be very difficult for us to beat anybody. We just weren’t as efficient as we’ve been in quite some time.”
Yet the Mean Green never lost touch with the Cajuns. The biggest deficit was nine points as North Texas held ULL to just 32 percent shooting, and the Mean Green gave themselves a chance in the closing minutes.
North Texas trailed by nine early in the second half but fought back to tie the game on a bucket by Niko Stojiljkovic at 44-44, but ULL went back up and held a 53-47 lead with 2:43 to play. North Texas got a two from Jacob Holmen and free throws by Hall and Mitchell – but in both cases they got just one of two – to draw within 53-51. Holmen hit a pair of free throws to get NT within one, but they could not find any offense the rest of the way, including turning the ball over with six seconds to play and down three.
The loss drops North Texas to 8-6 in Sun Belt play (15-12 overall), although
the Mean Green can still grab on the top five positions in the conference with wins in its final two games of the season, both on the road.
North Texas led most of the first half but failed to take full advantage of a slow shooting start by ULL. The Cajuns made good on less than 20 percent of their field-goal attempts through the first seven minutes and three times the Mean Green built leads of seven points, but the Cajuns kept close while locating their offense, then finally took the lead at 23-21 with 5:06 left before halftime.
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On that play, Mitchell picked up his second foul and sat out the remainder of the half, and he was joined
by Walton a minute later with his second foul. Lafayette exploited the weakened Mean Green offense to build a 32-25 lead at halftime. The Cajuns, fueled by two 6-0 runs, out-scored North Texas 20-6 over the final 9:25 of the first half.
North Texas will face West-Division leader Arkansas-Little Rock on Thursday before finishing the regular season at Denver, another team in the chase for a first-round bye in the SBC Tournament, on February 26.
