UTA Overcomes UNT
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DENTON, Texas (11/28/12) – The Mean Green’s shooting went cold in the second half against UTA as the Mavericks men’s basketball team shot past North Texas, 72-59, on Wednesday night at the Super Pit.
The Mean Green falls to 3-4 overall, while the Mavericks improve to 3-1. UTA wins its second straight game in the series against North Texas, but the Mean Green holds a 30-23 lead in the overall series.
North Texas got off to a promising start, hitting nine of its 15 first shots but faltered in the second half. The Mean Green made just five field goals in the second half, while UTA cruised behind 42 percent shooting.
The Mean Green relied on its free-throw shooting to stay in the game, making 18 shots from the charity stripe in the second period. UTA kept pace with the Mean Green, making 19-of-29 free throws.
After making just one 3-pointer in the first half, UTA hit 3 three-pointers in the opening six minutes of the second period to take its first leads of the game. A basket from behind the arc by Shaq White-Miller at 15:27 gave UTA a lead, 43-41, it would not relinquish the rest of the game.
Roger Franklin tied the game at 43-43 with a layup at 15:01, and North Texas would not make
another field goal for six minutes. In that span, UTA went on a 13-7 run to stay ahead, 56-50.
UTA would lead by as many as 12 points, 66-54, at the 4:01 mark in the second half. Tony Mitchell made a layup with two minutes left in the game and that would be the Mean Green’s only field goal in the final eight minutes of the game.
Alzee Williams led the Mean Green with 14 points with 10 of those coming in the first half. He scored 10 of NT’s first 15 points. Mitchell finished with 12 points and nine rebounds, and Franklin scored 11 points to go along with nine boards.
North Texas shot 31 percent from the field, tying its lowest shooting percentage of the season. Its 59 points was also the fewest since scoring 51 in the opening loss against Creighton.
Karol Gruszecki led all scorers with 17 points. Jordan Reeves pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds. UTA shot 46 percent from the field in the game and hit 4 3-pointers in the second half.
North Texas raced out fast in the opening minutes but then cooled off at the end as UTA came back to tie the game, 31-31, at the half.
Williams hit a 3-pointer and then completed a three-point play a minute later to give the Mean Green a 10-5 lead at 16:37. North Texas hit three 3-pointers to lead by five, 21-16, at 12:26. The Mean Green was 4-for-10 from three-point range in the first period but went 0-for-13 in the second.
Back-to-back layups by Mitchell gave North Texas its largest lead, 29-21 at 9:06. Both teams cooled off with neither team scoring for five minutes. UTA tied the game, 29-29, off a Brandon Edwards dunk.
UTA finished the first half on a 10-2 run.
North Texas returns to action on Saturday, Dec. 1 when it faces Louisiana-Lafayette at 7 p.m. in the Super Pit.
