University of North Texas Athletics
Mean Green Falls At Southern, 75-58
12/3/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BATON ROUGE, La. (12/3/03) The North Texas men’s basketball team (1-2) dropped a hard-fought 75-58 decision to Southern University (2-2) Wednesday night at F.G. Clark Activity Center.
North Texas had three players score in double-figures, including sophomore Justin Barnett with a career-high 12 points. Michael DeGrate and Michael Jones each added 10, while Jones led the Mean Green on the boards with eight rebounds.
For the second straight game North Texas found itself having to makeup a large halftime deficit that actually reached 20 points in the second half. And for the second straight game the Mean Green responded with a solid comeback effort that fell short. Southern built its largest lead of the game 46-26 right after halftime and while the Mean Green cut the lead to as little as nine points several times in the second half, couldn’t get any closer.
Southern hit 56 percent of its shots, including a 40 percent mark from beyond the arc, in the first half to jump on top of the Mean Green. The Jaguars finished with a .500 shooting percentage for the entire game, while NT hit 37 percent of its shots from the floor. North Texas outrebounded Southern 40-37, but committed seven more turnovers.
Playing without senior’s Will Smith and DeGrate for most of the first half after both picked up two early fouls, North Texas found itself behind 44-26 at the break. Southern was able to open up its first double-figure lead 12:30 into the game at 26-16 and the 18-point difference at the half was the largest of the opening 20 minutes.
Smith and DeGrate both fouled out, playing 11 and 19 minutes, respectively. North Texas hit 10-17 free throws, while Southern connected on 14-20 shots from the line.
North Texas now returns home for back-to-back games at the Super Pit, starting with Hardin-Simmons this Saturday at 7 p.m.
