University of North Texas Athletics
Mean Green Top Jaguars To Finish Regular Season Above .500
2/23/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The win lifted the Mean Green to a 14-13 regular-season finish, marking the first time since the 1995-96 season that North Texas has finished the regular season above .500. With an 8-7 Sun Belt Conference record, the Mean Green now set their sights on Friday’s opening-round game against Florida International in the conference’s championship tournament in New Orleans.
“I’m so proud of them this year,” said first-year Mean Green head coach Johnny Jones. “They did some things that people said couldn’t be done. They went to work everyday and it paid off. I’m really excited for this basketball team.”
The win, which completed a two-game sweep of the Jaguars (7-20, 2-13) this season and stopped a two-game losing streak, wasn’t the only thing to celebrate Saturday. Junior guard Chris Davis led all scorers with 29 points (10 of 19 from the floor) to push his season point total to 601 to become just the sixth person in North Texas history to score 600 or more points in a season.
Davis was one of three Mean Green players in double figures, with junior forward Jermaine Green finishing with 18 and Jerome Rogers adding 15. Leonard Hopkins also contributed nine.
“All the guys played well tonight,” Jones said. “Terence played well tonight on defense and Chris bounced back (from Thursday’s game) and had a big night. Jerome got a start and did an excellent job on the floor.
“I’m proud of all the guys,” Jones added. “They all did an excellent job of performing tonight.”
North Texas battled out to a one-point lead, 31-30, at halftime and then managed to hold off the Jaguars and maintain the lead throughout the second half. South Alabama did tie the score four different times in the final half, with the latest coming at 61-61 with 4:37 remaining in the game.
With 0:25 left, USA’s Demetrice Williams connected on a jumper to pull the Jaguars to within three at 75-72, but Hopkins and Green combined to hit three of four fouls from that point to nail down the victory for North Texas.
North Texas now prepares for its first-round game in next week’s Sun Belt Conference Tournament game in New Orleans. The Mean Green, as the fourth seed in the West Division, is scheduled to face Florida International on Friday at 2:00 p.m.
