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DENTON, Texas (2/22/08) The North Texas men’s basketball team is once again in a race for the Sun Belt West Division title and welcomes Arkansas State to the Super Pit for the regular season home finale. The Mean Green beat the Indians in the 2007 SBC championship game, and will have to hold off all-conference guard Adrian Banks and ASU again if it wants to contend in 2008.
In the last meeting with Arkansas State, junior Collin Dennis blistered the Indians for a career-high 30 points in a 74-63 win at the Convocation Center on Jan. 10. North Texas led wire-to-wire as Dennis scored the first five points of the game and didn’t stop until he matched Chris Davis’ 30 point effort for the most points in a single game since February 8, 2003. Arkansas State made numerous runs in the second half but got not get any closer than eight points.
The Indians hold a 16-11 all-time edge over the Mean Green, but North Texas has taken the last two meetings. The series that dates back to 1963. ASU took the first meeting, 64-63, in Jonesboro, and holds a 4-7 all-time advantage at the Super Pit.
Saturday’s game will be a rematch of the 2007 Sun Belt title game. North Texas advanced to the NCAA Tournament with an 83-75 win at the Cajundome in Lafayette, La. Arkansas State swept the pair of regular season meetings in 2006-07.
Arkansas State has fallen in its last eight games, and will be playing its second game without former head coach Dickey Nutt. ASU is the Sun Belt’s top 3-point shooting team with a 39.4 percent clip.
The game is slated to begin at 7:00 p.m. CST, and can be heard on the Mean Green Radio Network.
What To Watch For
North Texas downed ULM 72-40 on Wednesday night, which is the largest margin of defeat in the 37-year history of Monroe’s Fant-Ewing Coliseum (opened in 1971). Since 1950, only two other North Texas opponents have been held at or under 40 points.
North Texas forward Quincy Williams will go down as one of the winningest players in school history. The senior is only the third Mean Green player ever to be a part of four consecutive non-losing seasons, and the first since the 1950-54 campaigns.
With the win over ULM the Mean Green recorded its 17th victory of the year, and when combined with the 23-win campaign of 2006-07, gives the program back-to-back seasons with at least 17 wins for the first time since 1976-78. As a matter of fact, this is only the fourth time in school history to have consecutive 17-plus win seasons.
NT owns a stellar 13-2 record at the Super Pit this year, and can match the most home wins in Super Pit history with a victory over Arkansas State on Saturday.
