Mean Green Welcome Rice

Who: Rice Owls (10-7, 4-5) vs. North Texas Mean Green (8-5, 4-1)
What: Mean Green return home aiming for their second win over Rice this weekend.
When: Sunday – Jan. 31 – 3:00 pm CT
Where: Denton, TX (The Super Pit)
How (to follow):

TV: ESPN+ (Click Here) to stream ESPN+
Radio: Learfield IMG College Mean Green Sports Network (Dave Barnett and Hank Dickenson). Listen to Mean Green Sports Network Online: CLICK HERE
Live Stats: MeanGreenStats.com
C-USA Standings: CLICK HERE
North Texas Game Notes: CLICK HERE
Return To Play: CLICK HERE

DENTON — The North Texas men's basketball beat Rice 79-74 in Houston on Friday. Sunday, they look for the season sweep over the Owls with a scheduled 3 p.m. tip-off from the Super Pit.

Sunday's game will be streamed on ESPN+ and the Mean Green Sports Network Learfield IMG College.

On Friday UNT (8-5, 4-1) was led by senior point guard Javion Hamlet who scored a career-high 30 points in the five-point win. Hamlet led a second-half comeback for the Mean Green by scoring 22 of his 30 points in the second frame. In now three career games against the Owls (10-7. 4-5), Hamlet has scored a total of 69 points (23 per game).

Senior forward Zachary Simmons enters Sunday's game 16 points shy of scoring his 1,000th career point. He scored 16 points on Friday at Rice. He'll become the 24th UNT men's basketball player to reach that milestone when he gets there.

Under fourth-year head coach Grant McCasland, UNT is 6-1 versus Rice and 3-0 at home. The Mean Green are 8-1 all-time at home versus the Owls.

NEWS AND NOTES

North Texas is the only team in C-USA who has had the same starting lineup in every game this season. UNT was just one of two teams in the nation last year to have the same starting lineup in every game. UNC Asheville was the other school last year. Head coach Grant McCasland has said he doesn't foresee changing the starting lineup as this year more than any other year it's important to have some consistency.

Teams With 1 Starting Lineup This Year
Baylor, Cal Baptist, UC Riverside, Colgate, Davidson, Drake, Drexel, Merrimack, Missouri St, North Texas, Richmond, SMU, St. Bonaventure and Temple.

Last year when North Texas and Rice met at the Super Pit on Jan. 20, 2020, UNT beat the Owls 79-59. Since then Rice has only once been held to fewer points and it was two weeks ago on Jan. 16, 2021 in a 61-58 loss to Old Dominion. The 20-point conference loss UNT handed Rice that day is still the second-biggest league loss Rice has had in the Scott Pera era. Javion Hamlet led all scorers with 24 points and Zachary Simmons added 17 on 7-7 shooting.
Forwards Zachary Simmons and Thomas Bell are two of the best two-point shooters in the nation as of Saturday. Simmons is 50-75 (66.7%) from two-point range this year, which ranks 47th in the nation and Bell is 33-50 (66%) which ranks 58th. As a team UNT is shooting 44.6% from inside the arc, which ranks 30th in the nation.
Javion Hamlet scored a career-high 30 points on Friday on 9-of-16 shooting. The nine made field goals also tied a career-high for Hamlet.

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Players Mentioned

Thomas Bell

Javion Hamlet

Zachary Simmons

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