UNT Begins Bonus Play Saturday At Home

DENTON — Al Pacino said in the movie Any Given Sunday that "football, like life, is a game of inches... the margin for error is so small."

In many ways the North Texas men's basketball team this season can relate to that quote as they've succeeded in winning those inches and mastering the details in key moments.

"One-half second too fast or too slow can be all the difference," Pacino added.

There may not be a more prime example of this than on Jan. 18 when UNT's Javion Hamlet made a buzzer-beating shot to beat Louisiana Tech 51-50 on the road. Referees reviewed the final shot for nearly five minutes as it came down to inches, maybe less. They'd eventually confirm the shot was good.

Fast forward to Friday, and the Mean Green (18-9, 12-2) sit in first place of the Conference USA standings just a few wins away from being able to clinch a regular season title for the first time as a member of the league and are two games ahead of the third place Bulldogs (19-7, 10-4 C-USA). If Hamlet's game-winning shot on Jan. 18 had left his hand one-half second later than it did and the referees overturned the buzzer-beater, North Texas would head into this weekend's game in a three-way tie for first with LA Tech and Western Kentucky and would not control its own fate as it does now.

Saturday in Denton, North Texas and LA Tech match up again. The 3 p.m. scheduled tip-off will be broadcasted on Stadium and Mean Green Sports Network (95.3 KHYI and 88.1 KNTU) or the tuneIN app.

"At the end of games we've executed and made plays on both ends of the court to win games," Hamlet says. In its 12 conference wins, UNT has held its opponents to a combined 28 percent shooting following the final media timeout. "We have a ton of respect for LA Tech and we know we have a target on our backs so the importance of executing will be even more so on Saturday."

FIRST TIME SINCE 1952
North Texas' win in Ruston, Louisiana, on Jan. 18 was its first win over the Bulldogs in Ruston since 1952.

10 STRAIGHT
UNT has won 10 straight home games.

ONLY TEAM IN THE NATION
North Texas is the only team in the nation that ranks in the top 30 in overall field goal percentage, two-point field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage and scoring defense.

SINCE JAN. 1
Since Jan. 1, UNT owns the nation's second-best FG% (52.0%), second-best 2-point FG% (59.3%) and the nation's third-best 3-point FG% (41.0%).

BEST CONFERENCE START
North Texas' 12-2 (.857) conference record is its best start to conference play in any conference in program history since moving to the NCAA ranks in 1957.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR CANDIDATE
In league play, redshirt junior Javion Hamlet leads C-USA in assists (73), assists per game (5.2) and assist/turnover ratio (2.7), free throw percentage (90%). He's also fifth in the league scoring (17.3 points per game).

SIXTH MAN OF THE YEAR
UNT's Thomas Bell has yet to start a game this year. But of all non-starters in the nation, Bell ranks 4th in total rebounds, 4th in defensive rebounds, 7th in steals, 10th in assists, 14th in 3-point field goal percentage and 36th in scoring.

NEVER BEFORE
UNT is 7-0 in home conference games. They've never won eight home conference games in a single season.

VERY EFFECTIVE
In conference games, Javion Hamlet owns the nation's sixth-highest effective field goal percentage at 56.9%. Effective field goal percentage gives more credit to three-pointers.

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Thomas Bell

Javion Hamlet

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