University of North Texas Athletics
Mean Green Falls 88-75 At SMU
11/29/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
DALLAS (11/29/02) Despite three players scoring in double figures, the North Texas men’s basketball team fell 88-75 to the SMU Mustangs on Friday night at Moody Coliseum.
Jerome Rogers hit 6-of-11 three-point shots and poured in a team-high 21 points to lead North Texas, but it wasn’t enough to counter Quinton Ross’ game-high 32 points and Eric Castro’s 14 points and 14 rebounds.
After trailing 44-41 at the half, North Texas jumped ahead 47-46 just 1:44 into the second half. The Mustangs came right back on their next possession, however, reclaiming the lead off a Patrick Simpson jumper. North Texas was behind just 75-70 with 5:21 left in the contest, but SMU was able to put together a 12-1 run over the next four minutes to pull ahead 87-71 with just 1:20 left in the contest.
Ross scored 21 first-half points to lead the Mustangs to a three-point halftime advantage. North Texas’ Chris Davis scored a team-best 11 points and Rogers hit three shots from beyond the arc to lead the Mean Green through the first 20 minutes of action. NT played for the last shot of the first half, but Rogers’ long-range three-point attempt was off the mark.
Led by Castro and Ross’ combined 22 boards, SMU outrebounded North Texas 54-37. The Mustangs also hit 24 of 36 free throws in comparison to the Mean Green’s 9 of 15 performance from the charity stripe.
Chris Davis scored 16 points and Leonard Hopkins finished with 15 to join Rogers in double figures. Freshman Ron Harris contributed a solid 18 minutes, scoring nine points, grabbing four rebounds and blocking two shots.
North Texas remains on the road for its next game, playing at Indiana on Sunday at 1 p.m.
