UNT Women Lose To Oral Roberts
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DENTON, Texas (11/16/11) – The North Texas women’s basketball team held a half-time lead, but Oral Roberts pulled away late to take a 70-60 win against the Mean Green on Wednesday afternoon at the Super Pit.
The Mean Green (2-1) lost its first game of the season, while the Golden Eagles improve to 3-0. ORU leads the series against NT, 7-3.
Jasmine Godbolt, Tamara Torru, and Brittney Hudson all posted double-figures for the third straight game. Godbolt led the Mean Green in scoring for the second straight game with 17 points. Also for the second straight game, she was one rebound shy of a double-double. Torru scored a season high with 15 points. She led the team in the first half with 12 points. Hudson poured in 10 points.
North Texas led by as many as eight points in the first half and seven in the second, but ORU pulled away midway through the second period behind 52 percent shooting. Kevi Luper led all scorers with 22 points and four steals for the Golden Eagles.
Laura McCoy hit a three-pointer at the start of the second half to put North Texas ahead, 39-32. Luper led ORU on a 9-0 run to overtake the Mean Green, 41-39 at 12:51. Luper scored seven points in the spread.
Torru hit a free-throw to give North Texas its final lead of the game, 42-41, at 12:27. Oral Roberts finished the game on a
29-19 run. The Golden Eagles outscored the Mean Green in the second period, 42-26.
The Eagles forced 26 Mean Green turnovers, scoring 27 points off the NT miscues. ORU also recorded 14 steals in the game.
The first half was a series of runs by both teams. The Mean Green and the Golden Eagles went on back-to-back 8-0 runs before North Texas ended the first period on a 17-7 run. Torru and Braylah Blakely each had four points in the final run that gave North Texas a 34-28 lead at the break.
North Texas went on an 8-0 run to take its first lead of the game, 15-11, at 11:41 in the first half. Ash’Lynne Evans and Torru hit back-to-back three-pointers to go ahead by four.
ORU responded with an 8-0 run of its own to take back the lead, 21-17.
North Texas shot 46 percent in the first half, hitting 12 of its 26 field goals. The Mean Green held ORU to 30 percent shooting in the first half. The Golden Eagles scored 21 points from the free-throw line for an 84 shooting percentage. Fifteen of those points were scored in the second half.
Overall, the Mean Green shot 42.6 percent from the field. NT held a slim edge in rebounding, 37-36.
Wednesday’s match was called the Denton ISD Elementary School Day game. Four schools from Denton ISD: Paloma Creek, Savannah, Providence, and Cross Roads, had students come to the game for a total of 700 fifth and sixth grade students at the Super Pit. This is the first time the women hosted a Denton ISD Elementary School game, although the men’s program is hosting one on Jan. 18 for the third straight season.
Students were provided with North Texas backpacks as they left the game, with women’s basketball posters, schedule cards, ticket information and a voucher for future game tickets at a discounted rate included.
North Texas returns to action on Tuesday, Nov. 22 when it faces SMU at home at 7 p.m.
