University of North Texas
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UTEP
Mean Green Look To Make More History
1/24/2020 5:06:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Last week, they won at Southern Miss for the first time since 1971 and then two days later they won at Louisiana Tech for the first time since 1952.
On Saturday they host UTEP, aiming for its first victory at home over the Miners since 1952.
The Mean Green (13-8, 7-1 C-USA) and UTEP (12-8, 3-4 C-USA) are schedule to tip-off at 5 p.m. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN+ and the Mean Green Sports Network (95.3 KHYI).
After Thursday's 20-point win over UT San Antonio on Thursday, North Texas improved to 7-1 in conference and regained first place of the league standings, a half-game ahead of Western Kentucky. UNT was led on Thursday by Umoja Gibson's 27 points — the most points scored by a Mean Green player this season. Not far behind Gibson's 27 was Javion Hamlet who dropped 22 points to go along with six assists and no turnovers. It was the point guard's second straight game with no turnovers.
Last season, UNT beat UTEP, 58-51, in El Paso in the teams' only meeting.
A win on Saturday would be the Mean Green's eighth straight, tying their longest winning streak of last season and tying the 2009-10 team's longest winning streak in conference. It would also improve their conference record to 8-1, something that hasn't been done since the 1988-89 team started conference play 8-1 in the Southland.
MAC VERSUS TEXAS SCHOOLS
Third-year head coach Grant McCasland is on a five-game winning streak versus schools from Texas. The last loss came on Jan. 12, 2019 at UTSA (76-74). He is 14- 4 (.777) all-time versus Texas schools as UNT's head coach.
20-POINT WINS
In Conference USA play this season, there have been a total of eight 20-point victories by all 14 teams combined. North Texas has four of those wins. LA Tech (2), FIU (1) and Marshall (1) are the only others who have at least one. In conference play, UNT's average margin of victory is 15 points, which is the best in C-USA. Its scoring margin is +12 in all games. They're the only school in double figures.
164 MINUTES
Redshirt junior point guard Javion Hamlet has committed just five turnovers in the last 164 minutes of playing time. That spans over the last five full games and the very end of Jan. 9th's 74-56 win over FIU. He's had zero turnovers in their last two games and has gone 69 straight minutes without a turnover. He's had four games this year with no turnovers.
LOW TURNOVERS
North Texas has committed a season-low turnovers in consecutive games. They had nine on Monday versus Rice and then four on Thursday versus UTSA. North Texas' four lowest turnover performances have come during their current seven-game winning streak.
BEST START IN 31 YEARS
North Texas' 7-1 start to conference play is its best start to a conference schedule since the 1988-89 team started 8-1 in the Southland Conference.
25 STRAIGHT GAMES
North Texas' Umoja Gibson has made a 3-pointer in 25 straight games. The NCAA record is 88.
FRUITFUL MONTH
UNT has gone 7-1 in January. The seven wins are the most they've had in the month of January since 1992 when they went 7-2 in January. That team was led by head coach Jimmy Gales. The last time they won eight games in the month of January was in 1976. In what was Bill Blakeley's first year as UNT's head coach, the Mean Green went 8-1 in January. Over the last four games, Hamlet averaged 16.2 points per game, 6.2 assists per game with an 5.0 A/TO ratio.
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