University of North Texas Athletics
Mean Green Falls At New Mexico State, 77-62
2/7/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
LAS CRUCES, NM (2/7/04) New Mexico State (10-10, 4-5) used an early second-half run to break open a close game against North Texas (10-11, 5-4) and went on for a 77-62 victory in a Sun Belt Conference men’s basketball game Saturday night at the Pan American Center.
Trailing by just one point, New Mexico State opened the second half with a 23-6 run that gave it a 55-39 advantage, with 10:48 remaining in the contest. The Mean Green cut the lead to 10, 58-48, at the 7:17 mark of the second half, but couldn’t get any closer.
The rebounding battle and shooting percentages were very close, but that Aggies gave the Mean Green trouble in the paint with nine blocked shots. The Aggies held a 45-43 advantage on the boards.
North Texas actually posted a higher shooting percentage than New Mexico State, .377 to .365. However, the Aggies shot .735 from the free throw line in comparison to .524 for the Mean Green.
North Texas took an early 17-9 advantage just a little over seven minutes into the game, but the Aggies used a 16-2 run over the next 6:44 to go ahead 25-19 with 5:45 remaining in the opening half. However, the Mean Green outscored NMSU 14-7 to close out the first 20 minutes of action and take a 33-32 lead into the locker room.
North Texas got some solid individual efforts, including a team-high 22 points from Leonard Hopkins and four blocks from senior forward Shawnson Johnson. At the same time, James Moore was outstanding for New Mexico State, finishing with 21 points, 12 rebounds and eight blocked shots to pace the Aggies attack.
Tonight’s game wrapped up a two-game road stretch for North Texas, which now returns home to host Middle Tennessee on Thursday, Feb. 12.
