University of North Texas Athletics
Mean Green Drops Regular-Season Finale At NMSU, 88-60
3/1/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
LAS CRUCES, NM (3/1/03) North Texas (7-20, 2-13) and New Mexico State (19-8, 9-6) battled each other in a game that saw 19 lead changes before the Aggies were finally able to pull away with an 80-66 victory Saturday night in Sun Belt Conference men’s basketball action.
Playing its final regular-season outing of the year, North Texas caught a tough NMSU team at the Pan American Center in front of a crowd of 9,244 on the Aggies senior night. The Aggies were able to avenge an 82-75 setback to the Mean Green in Denton earlier this year as the two teams split their regular-season meetings.
North Texas gave up just two more rebounds to NMSU, 33-31, and shot 46 percent from the field, but it wasn’t enough to overcome 18 turnovers and a 29-of-37 shooting performance from the free throw line by the Aggies.
“We knew it was going to be a difficult game against a difficult basketball team,” said North Texas head coach Johnny Jones. “There was nothing on the line tonight but pride and I thought our guys came out and played hard. Unfortunately, we turned the ball over too many times and had too many unforced errors.”
After 15 lead changes and 13 ties in the first half, the opening 20 minutes ended with the two teams deadlocked at 37. The second half began much the way the first half went, seeing four lead changes within the first three minutes. North Texas held its last lead of the game, 42-41, with 17:51 remaining in the contest. The Aggies went on a 25-10 run at that point, opening up a 66-52 advantage at the 8:36 mark. The Mean Green didn’t go away, however, pulling back to within five points, 69-64, with 4:26 left before the buzzer. Chris Davis and Michael DeGrate both picked up their fifth foul after that, as NMSU was able to put the clamps down and outscore the Mean Green 11-2 the rest of the way.
“This team (North Texas) still has a lot of fight in them and I think, for a change, we are going to be pretty healthy heading into the Sun Belt Conference Tournament,” said Jones. “We now have to prepare for a tough Arkansas-Little Rock team and focus all our attention on them.”
Scoring a team-best 18 points in 28 minutes of action, the Mean Green was led offensively by Davis. Out with flu NT’s prior two games, the senior guard was back on the court for the first time since Feb. 20 and was able to pick up his 100th career double-figure scoring game and also became NT’s all-time leader in three-point field goals made. He hit 1-of-2 three’s to push his career total to 188.
Also scoring in double digits for the Mean Green was junior guard Jerome Rogers, who finished with 14. Will Smith led the team on the boards for the third straight game with a career-high 11 rebounds. The 6-7 forward also chipped in six points and had two steals.
“We missed Will earlier in the season due to injury,” said Jones. “He is a strong inside presence and he does a good job of executing the offense. He has done an excellent job for us since returning and its nice to see him getting his rebounds back up.”
North Texas now turns its attention to the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, where it will catch Arkansas-Little Rock in the first round on Friday, Mar. 7, at 8 p.m. UALR, the third seed out of the East Division, slipped past North Texas 88-80 in overtime in the two team’s regular season meeting.
