UNT Set to Take on Louisiana and Montana State in UNT Fall Feast

DENTON, Texas (Nov. 23, 2022) – Coming off a heartbreaking road loss in which they blew a 17-point halftime lead Saturday against Wichita State, North Texas returns to action Friday and Sunday UNT Thanksgiving Tournament taking on Louisiana and Montana State.

It will be the 38th all-time meeting between the Mean Green and the Ragin' Cajuns. UNT holds a narrow 20-17 edge in the all-time series that dates to 1984. The two teams faced off yearly from 2001-13 as members of the Sun Belt Conference.

The contest between UNT and Montana St., meanwhile, will be just the second all-time. The Mean Green knocked off the Bobcats 87-78 last season on Nov. 26 in the Thanksgiving Classic hosted by Cal Poly.

UNT will be looking to bounce back after back-to-back losses against SFA and Wichita State as they try to avoid starting the season 1-3 for the first time since 2018-19.

After scoring 30 points against WSU, Quincy Noble became the first UNT player to earn C-USA Player of the Week honors since the 2019-20 season.

Louisiana comes into the contest at 1-4 overall having played a tough early schedule with three matchups against Power 5 opponents (Texas, Texas Tech, Colorado).

MSU, meanwhile, heads into the tournament 3-1 with wins over BYU and North Dakota on their resume. The lone loss for the Bobcats this season came against Arizona State.

Reading Up on the Ragin' Cajuns

Louisiana comes into the contest 1-4 on the season with their lone win coming against Houston to open the year.
The Ragin' Cajuns went 18-7 last season and 9-4 in the Sun Belt, advancing to the tournament semifinal.
UL is led offensively by Tamera Johnson who leads the team with 9.6 points and 6.6 rebounds per contest. Johnson scored 15 points against #3 Texas earlier this season.
Louisiana is also getting solid production from Lanay Wheaton who is scoring 8.4 points and pulling down 4.2 boards per game this season.
As a team, UL does a good job getting to the charity stripe as they rank 29th in the country this season with 24.0 free throw attempts per game.

Brushing Up on the Bobcats

Montana State comes into the tournament at 4-1 overall with wins over BYU, North Dakota and San Diego State this season. The lone loss for the Bobcats came against Arizona State.
MSU finished 22-13 in 2021-22 and won the Big Sky Tournament to clinch a spot in the NCAAA Tournament.
Junior Texas native Leia Beattie leads the way for MSU offensively averaging 13.0 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. Beattie is coming off a career-high 27-point performance in the Bobcats' last win over San Jose State.
Senior Darian White and junior Grace Beasley are both averaging double-digits in scoring as well for MSU with 11.4 and 10.4 points per game, respectively.
Much like Louisiana, the Bobcats are also one of the strongest teams in the country from the free throw line, ranking 14th in Division I with 18.8 free throw makes per game.

C-USA Player of the Week

After matching her career-high against Wichita St. and averaging 21.0 points per game on the week, Quincy Noble earned C-USA Women's Basketball Player of the Week honors for the first time in her career.
Noble started the week scoring 12 points while also adding two rebounds, a block and an assist against SFA. The senior out of McKinney, Texas, followed it up with one of the best performances of her career Saturday when she went off for 30 points on the road at Wichita State.
She became the first UNT women's basketball player to earn the recognition since N'Yah Boyd won the award on Dec. 28, 2020.
This season, Noble is averaging 16.7 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game. She is less than 200 points shy of becoming the 15th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points.

A Look Back at Wichita State

Noble put up 25 points in the first half and tied her career-high with 30 in the game, but UNT was unable to hold on to a 17-point first half lead as they fell 57-53 in their first road contest of the season.
Noble also matched her career-high with six 3-pointers but the Mean Green managed just 12 points in the second half as they dropped to 1-2 on the season.
After falling behind 5-0 early, UNT was able to get going offensively thanks to eight early points from junior Jaaucklyn Moore. She scored eight of the first 10 points of the game for UNT and finished with 11.
Down the stretch of the first, Noble began her run of dominant play. The senior out of McKinney, Texas, scored 10 of the final 11 points of the first quarter and added 15 more points in the second to extend the lead to as many as 17 at the break.
With the score 48-36 with just over a minute left in the third, WSU went on an 8-0 run to close the third and open the fourth and made the score 48-44 with 8:45 to play.
The Shockers rattled off 13 consecutive points over a six-minute span to retake the lead they would not relinquish.

Tickets
Tickets for this game as well as season tickets are on sale now. Fans should purchase their tickets at www.meangreentickets.com.

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