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University of North Texas
Middle Tennessee
Mean Green Picks Up Crucial Road Win At Middle Tennessee
2/15/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Box Score
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (2/14/09) The North Texas basketball team broke the curse of the Murphy Center and picked up a key Sun Belt Conference road win with a resounding 89-78 victory at Middle Tennessee on Saturday night.
The Mean Green (15-10, 8-6 Sun Belt West) was winless in five previous trips to the Murphy Center, and with just four games left in the regular season, moved itself into a tie with the SBC’s fourth seeded Blue Raiders (15-11, 8-6 Sun Belt East) with the victory.
The guard combo of Adam McCoy and Josh White kept MTSU on its heels by trading big baskets all evening. McCoy played the game of his life, grabbing a career-high 24 points with a four-count of 3-pointers. White was unstoppable in the first with 16 points at the break and 26 for the game, which is his highest output since posting a career-high 28 at Texas last year.
As a team, North Texas landed a season-best 29-of-48 (60.4 percent) shots from the floor, and 52.6 percent from downtown, its second-highest outing this year. The Mean Green even excelled from the free-throw line, icing the game with 16 makes in the final 9:21 in a 21-of-27 (77.8 percent) performance on the night.
The Mean Green frustrated the Blue Raiders out of the gate with a potent inside-out combo. White nailed a 3-pointer and George Odufuwa and Eric Tramiel worked the low block to give NT a quick 9-2 lead just three minutes into the game.
The deep ball continued to add to the Mean Green lead when McCoy caught fire. The senior splashed home a pair of 3’s in a two minute span to push the NT advantage to 20-13 with 11:39 left in the half.
It would be tough to execute better than the Mean Green did in the opening half. On the back of White, North Texas landed 63.0 percent of its field goals, including a 7-of-11 (63.6 percent) mark from downtown. The sophomore led the way with 16 of those points followed by McCoy’s 13.
The Mean Green committed just five turnovers in the opening frame, and held the Blue Raiders to 6-of-24 (25.0 percent) shooting. NT led by as much as 20 points on MTSU in the first, and stretched that to 21 early in the second.
The Mean Green weathered the Middle Tennessee storm out of the halftime break with, what else, another 3-point barrage. The Blue Raiders opened with a 9-5 run, but Johnson and Thompson answered the call with a shot each from downtown each.
Thompson also reached double figures with 11 points, as he, White and McCoy accounted for 61 of NT’s 89 points.
North Texas returns to action with its final two home games next week at the Super Pit. The Mean Green takes on ULM on Thursday and UALR on Senior-Night Saturday. Both games tip off at 7 p.m., and can be heard on the Mean Green Radio Network.
