University of North Texas
-25,00 CUSA
Utah State
7-0,0-0Mountain West
UNT Falls Just Short Against No. 15 Utah St.
11/24/2019 9:04:00 PM | Men's Basketball
MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — The North Texas men's basketball lost 68-59 to No. 15 Utah State on Sunday night in the Jersey Mike's Jamaica Classic.
The Mean Green (2-5) led for 20 minutes and 47 seconds, including most of the second half, but a six-point swing with less than three minutes left in the game gave the top 25 Aggies (7-0) the late surge they needed to beat UNT.
"It's disappointing," said head coach Grant McCasland. "It's not good enough. There's no justifying it. We should have won the basketball game, because we fought well enough to win the game for about 35 minutes to do it. We just didn't finish."
On Sunday, North Texas was led by redshirt senior forward Deng Geu and Umoja Gibson. The two combined for 37 points and had five steals on the defensive end.
"Deng was extremely tough and was exactly what we needed him to be," McCasland said. "Mo was heroic."
An eye-opening defensive effort by the Mean Green in the first half set the tone.
North Texas held the Aggies to under 30 percent shooting for most of the first half. They had been held under 40 percent just once so far this season prior. Also in the first half they kept the Aggies' reigning Mountain West Conference Player of the Year and 2019 Preseason Conference Player of the Year Sam Merrill scoreless and attempted just three first half shots.
Merrill finished the game with just six points, all of which came from the free throw line.
But that's where the Aggies were able to stay in the game and eventually pull ahead.
Utah State attempted 12 free throws in the first half — making nine — and the number jumped even more in the second half as they went 18-of-22 from the free throw in the second stanza. They finished off North Texas by going 5-for-5 from the stripe in the final two minutes.
Meanwhile, UNT made just one trip to the free throw line in the entire second half.
"They put their heads down and attacked," McCasland said of the Utah State offense. "Especially late in the game."
North Texas returns from Jamaica but doesn't play again until Dec. 2 when they travel down I-35 to UT Arlington for a 7 p.m. scheduled tip.
