UNT Loses To FAU In Double OT
{fshare id=2220}
BOCA RATON, Fla. – The North Texas basketball team’s bid for a sunshine state sweep fell short as Florida Atlantic erased a 19-point second half deficit to win 86-81 in double overtime at FAU Arena. The Mean Green (14-11, 7-5) had a chance to win the game at the end of regulation but Jacob Holman’s 3-pointer missed and the game went into overtime.
The Owls (11-14, 7-5) took their first lead of the game in overtime at 73-71, but North Texas tied the game at 73 with 56 seconds left and then had two chances to win in overtime but shots by Tony Mitchell and Roger Franklin came up short.
The double overtime saw Florida Atlantic take a four-point lead at 78-74 on a 3-pointer by Raymond Taylor with 3:34 left. North Texas battled back to make it a two-point game at 81-79 with 1:32 left, but Shavor Richardson’s hit a 3-pointer with 57 seconds left to put the Owls up 84-79. North Texas cut it to three at 84-81, but free throws put the game away for FAU.
“The game never should have gotten to this point, we had a nice lead and should have been able to close the game out in regulation,” said North Texas coach Johnny Jones. “Tonight we had a nice lead, and we needed to take care of the basketball and execute our offense, but instead we turned the ball over and that let them back in the game.”
Mitchell ended the night with 22 points and a career high
20 rebounds. It is the 16th time that a player has recorded 20 rebounds in the NCAA this season and the 14th time in North Texas history. He is only the seventh player in the NCAA this season to score 20 points and grab 20 rebounds.
Holman had a career-high 20 points for North Texas. He fueled the Mean Green in the second half, scoring 12 of 14 points for North Texas early in the second frame as the lead ballooned to 48-29 with 14:44 remaining.
That’s when Florida Atlantic began to chip away at the Mean Green lead. A 10-2 run cut the lead to 56-48 with seven minutes to play. A Brandan Walton 3-pointer pushed the North Texas lead back to nine at 62-53 with 4:29 left. Trailing 66-61, the Owls scored the final five points of regulation, first a bucket to make it a 66-63 lead with 1:20 left, and then a Taylor 3-pointer with 27 seconds to tie the game.
Roger Franklin got things rolling for the Mean Green with eight points in the first four minutes as North Texas opened up a 10-2 lead. Alzee Williams made it 17-6 with a bucket but FAU went on a 12-2 run over the next four minutes to trim the Mean Green’s lead down to a point at 19-18 with eight minutes left in the half.
North Texas didn’t waste any time in answering back with an 8-0 run to push the lead back to 27-18 with 5:49 left in the half. Mitchell had a dazzling behind the back move to score with a foul to make the North Texas lead nine points and it was a 10-point cushion at 34-24 at the break for the Mean Green.
North Texas is back home Thursday night as they host ULM at 7 p.m. in the final homestand of the regular season.
