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Saturday, January 15
Bowling Green, KY
3 PM CT
University of North Texas
at
WKU
Photo by: Luke Della
Men's Basketball Travels To WKU Saturday
1/14/2022 11:29:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BOWLING GREEN, Kentucky — Coming off of a 69-65 victory at Marshall on Thursday, the North Texas men's basketball team is at Western Kentucky Saturday for a rematch of last season's conference tournament championship battle.
The Mean Green (10-4, 3-1 C-USA), who won the 2021 Conference USA Tournament title over WKU with a 61-57 overtime victory, enter Saturday's contest having won eight of their last nine and on a two-game winning streak over the Hilltoppers (10-6, 2-1 C-USA). Saturday's game is scheduled to tip-off at 3 p.m. CT from the E.A. Diddle Arena and will be broadcast on Stadium and the Mean Green Sports Network, which can be found on The Varsity Network app.
Though UNT is on a two-game winning streak over Western Kentucky and each of those wins resulted in C-USA championships, the Mean Green have not won at WKU since Jan. 28, 2010 and the Hilltoppers own a 23-7 advantage in the series history that dates back to the 2000-01 season.
But recent history success by both teams illustrates that Saturday's game pits two of the league's top teams against each other. North Texas and WKU have a combined 52-19 (.732) league record in the last two-plus seasons.
"We know every time we match up against WKU it's going to be a battle," said senior JJ Murray who made a career-high three 3-pointers on Thursday. "They're always a very talented and competitive team and every time we face them it feels like there's always high stakes. We respect them a lot as competitors and are excited for this game every year."
BEST AT GUARDING THE ARC
Headed into Saturday, North Texas leads the nation in fewest 3-pointers given up per game. Opponents are only making 4.357 per game on UNT who have given up just 61 3-pointers this season. That's the third fewest in the nation. The next fewest in C-USA is Charlotte who has given up 93 3-pointers this season and played one less game than UNT.
GOING FOR THREE IN A ROW
North Texas enters Saturday on a two-game winning streak over WKU. The Mean Green have never won three in a row over the Hilltoppers.
ABOU'S CAREER GAME
North Texas sophomore Abou Ousmane scored a career-high 22 points and had a career-high 11 rebounds on Thursday to lead UNT to a 69-65 win over Marshall. Ousmane scored the 22 points on a career-high 13 field goal attempts and made a career-high nine of them. He also tied his career-high with five offensive rebounds in the game. Ousmane's previous single-game career-high was 13 points. He's now scored in double-figures eight times this season.
SOMEONE YOU CAN TRUST
Mardrez McBride leads the team playing 32.1 minutes per game, which as of Friday ranks 12th in C-USA. He's the only C-USA player ranked in the top 25 of minutes per game averaging less than one turnover per game.
NEXT UP
After Saturday, the Mean Green host Charlotte on Thursday for a 6 p.m. CT tip from the Super Pit. UNT is 2-2 versus the 49ers under fifth-year head coach Grant McCasland. They didn't face Charlotte last season. Next Thursday's game with Charlotte will be broadcast on ESPNU and Mean Green Sports Network.
The Mean Green (10-4, 3-1 C-USA), who won the 2021 Conference USA Tournament title over WKU with a 61-57 overtime victory, enter Saturday's contest having won eight of their last nine and on a two-game winning streak over the Hilltoppers (10-6, 2-1 C-USA). Saturday's game is scheduled to tip-off at 3 p.m. CT from the E.A. Diddle Arena and will be broadcast on Stadium and the Mean Green Sports Network, which can be found on The Varsity Network app.
Though UNT is on a two-game winning streak over Western Kentucky and each of those wins resulted in C-USA championships, the Mean Green have not won at WKU since Jan. 28, 2010 and the Hilltoppers own a 23-7 advantage in the series history that dates back to the 2000-01 season.
But recent history success by both teams illustrates that Saturday's game pits two of the league's top teams against each other. North Texas and WKU have a combined 52-19 (.732) league record in the last two-plus seasons.
"We know every time we match up against WKU it's going to be a battle," said senior JJ Murray who made a career-high three 3-pointers on Thursday. "They're always a very talented and competitive team and every time we face them it feels like there's always high stakes. We respect them a lot as competitors and are excited for this game every year."
BEST AT GUARDING THE ARC
Headed into Saturday, North Texas leads the nation in fewest 3-pointers given up per game. Opponents are only making 4.357 per game on UNT who have given up just 61 3-pointers this season. That's the third fewest in the nation. The next fewest in C-USA is Charlotte who has given up 93 3-pointers this season and played one less game than UNT.
GOING FOR THREE IN A ROW
North Texas enters Saturday on a two-game winning streak over WKU. The Mean Green have never won three in a row over the Hilltoppers.
ABOU'S CAREER GAME
North Texas sophomore Abou Ousmane scored a career-high 22 points and had a career-high 11 rebounds on Thursday to lead UNT to a 69-65 win over Marshall. Ousmane scored the 22 points on a career-high 13 field goal attempts and made a career-high nine of them. He also tied his career-high with five offensive rebounds in the game. Ousmane's previous single-game career-high was 13 points. He's now scored in double-figures eight times this season.
SOMEONE YOU CAN TRUST
Mardrez McBride leads the team playing 32.1 minutes per game, which as of Friday ranks 12th in C-USA. He's the only C-USA player ranked in the top 25 of minutes per game averaging less than one turnover per game.
NEXT UP
After Saturday, the Mean Green host Charlotte on Thursday for a 6 p.m. CT tip from the Super Pit. UNT is 2-2 versus the 49ers under fifth-year head coach Grant McCasland. They didn't face Charlotte last season. Next Thursday's game with Charlotte will be broadcast on ESPNU and Mean Green Sports Network.
Players Mentioned
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