Mean Green Rally Falls Short In Final Minute

DENTON (1/20/05) The North Texas men’s basketball team came within one point of the lead with a late second half rally, but Arkansas-Little Rock scored the final six points to take a 71-64 conference victory on Thursday night at the Super Pit.

The Mean Green (9-6, 2-2) lost its second Sun Belt Conference game of the season, while the Trojans improved to 12-4 overall and 4-1 in conference play.

“We were looking forward to coming home off a long road trip,” said North Texas head coach Johnny Jones. “We thought our shooting percentage would be better. We had some good looks at the basket that didn’t drop with Arkansas-Little Rock defending well.”

Junior Isaac Hines made both of his free throws to cut UALR’s lead to one, 65-64, with 1:34 left in the game. The one-point margin, the Trojans’ slimmest lead of the second half, capped a 10-1 run by the Mean Green. Sophomore Calvin Watson, who finished the game with 10 points, made two three-pointers in the spread. The Trojans scored the final six points to escape with the win.

The second half was one of streaks. UALR, which never trailed in the second half, started on an 11-5 run after the break to go ahead by 11 points, 44-33. After a Hines three cut the Trojans lead to four, 50-46, UALR responded with a 12-2 run to take its largest advantage, 62-48, with 9:12 left in the game. North Texas whittled the opposing lead to single digits and created opportunities down the stretch but was unable to convert.

The first half featured seven ties with neither team leading by more than seven points. North Texas led by as much as five, 24-19, after a layup by junior Jeffrey Simpson with under five minutes to play. The Trojans’ Brandon Freeman connected with a three to tie the game at 24-24, starting a 12-4 run that gave UALR a five-point halftime lead, 33-28. Freeman scored 10-of-his-12 points in the late run. He finished with a team-high 18 points.

Leonard Hopkins led all scorers with 22 points. With the tally, the senior moved into 13^th place on the North Texas all-time career scoring list with 1,103 points. Simpson joined him in double figures with a career-high 12 points. He also tied a personal best with eight rebounds.

“We played a good team tonight,” said Hopkins. “We had some opportunities, but we just couldn’t knock a lot of the shots down.”

The Trojans held the edge in rebounds, 45-31, and made 22-of-55 field goals (40 percent) compared to the Mean Green’s 32.8 percent shooting from the field.

The Mean Green continues its homestand with a Saturday night matchup against Arkansas State at 7 pm in the Super Pit.

Box Score

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events

University of North Texas Athletics

Mean Green Rally Falls Short In Final Minute

Related News

Related Videos