Women’s Basketball Looks for Second Straight C-USA Win Saturday Against MTSU

DENTON, Texas (Jan. 6, 2022) - After a strong 84-76 win over Western Kentucky to open the 2023 calendar year, North Texas returns to the court Saturday when they take on Middle Tennessee looking for back-to-back victories for the first time this season.

It will be the 29th all-time meeting between the two programs with MTSU holding a 24-4 lead in the series. The Mean Green have not defeated the Lady Raiders since the 2005-06 season as MTSU is currently on a 19-game win streak against the Mean Green.

UNT grabbed its first C-USA victory Thursday against WKU led by at 27-point, 10-rebound double-double from Aniyah Johnson to stop a three-game losing skid.

MTSU heads into the matchup on top of C-USA at 11-2 overall. The Lady Raiders are the only undefeated team left in conference play at 4-0 and received votes in the latest AP Top-25 poll.

Quick Hitters

Senior Quincy Noble leads UNT offensively with 18.5 points per game this season, a figure that ranks second in Conference USA and 38th in Division I. Noble has scored in double figures in each of the last 12 games for North Texas and scored her 1,000th career point on the road last Saturday at FIU.
Junior Tommisha Lampkin has been one of the top post players in C-USA, leading the league with 8.1 rebounds per game and second with 1.6 blocks per contest.
UNT has two of the top-10 players in C-USA in blocked shots this season in Lampkin and Johnson. Lampkin sits second in the league with 1.64 blocks per game while Johnson is eighth at 1.08 blocks per contest.
In total, the Mean Green rank fourth in the conference with 3.2 blocks per game as a team.
Through the first three C-USA games this season, sophomores Kendall McGruder and Aniyah Johnson have turned their game to a new level. In conference-only games this season, both McGruder and Johnson are averaging 13.3 points per game.
After her strong performance against WKU, Johnson is now averaging 9.0 rebounds per game in C-USA contests. That figure is the second-most in league-only games this season.
Freshman Ereauna Hardaway ranks third in C-USA with a 1.81 assist-to-turnover ratio on the year. The freshman leads the Mean Green with 3.8 assists per game.
Through 12 games this season, the rebound battle has been an indicator of success as the Mean Green are 1-8 this season when losing the team rebounding battle and are 3-0 when out-rebounding their opponents.

Series History

MTSU holds a 24-4 advantage in the all-time series that dates back to the 2000-01 season when the programs were both members of the Sun Belt Conference.
The Lady Raiders have won 19 consecutive games against the Mean Green. The last time UNT took down MTSU was Feb. 8, 2006 in a 69-64 win inside the Super Pit.

Matching up with MTSU

MTSU heads into the matchup with the best record in C-USA at 11-2 and are 4-0 in conference play this season.
The Lady Raiders have a number of impressive wins thus far this season, including an 18-point victory over No. 18 Louisiville in non-conference play. MTSU received the 30th-most votes in the latest AP Poll on Monday.
Coming off the bench the majority of the time, Ksenyia Malashka is the leading scorer for the Lady Raiders averaging 16.9 points per game. Malashka leads C-USA in both free throws and blocks per game this season.
Including Malashka, MTSU has four players averaging double figures this season including Jalynn Gregory who is scoring 12.7 points per game and is leading the league in 3-pointers this season.
The Lady Raiders lead the league in a number of different statistical categories, including free throw attempts where they rank third in Division I and turnover margin where they sit 30th in the country.

A Look back at WKU

Johnson had a career-high 27 points and 10 rebounds to post her first career double-double and lead UNT to an 84-76 win over WKU Thursday night.
Playing at home for the first time since Nov. 27, UNT had four players score in double figures for the first time this season. Quincy Noble scored 24, Kendall McGruder had 14 and Jaaucklyn Moore chipped in 11 to help the Mean Green earn their first win in Conference USA play this season.
Johnson was efficient throughout the night, going 11 for 13 from the floor and 5 of 6 from the free throw line to join Tommisha Lampkin as the second UNT player to post a double-double this season.
The Mean Green won the game with a strong second half, out-scoring the Lady Toppers 23-17 in both the third and fourth quarters and closed the game on an 18-9 run to improve to 4-9 this season and 1-2 in C-USA play.
As a team, UNT shot a season-high 57.7 percent from the floor and scored a season-best 84 points in the win.

Things to Know

Due to construction at the Super Pit, Gate A will be closed starting Thursday until further notice. Fans are encouraged to use Gate B when entering the arena.
As a part of the UNT Holiday basketball sale, fans can receive four free tickets with the purchase of one for the games Thursday against WKU and Saturday against Middle Tennessee.
Fans can take advantage of the offer and purchase tickets here: northtex.as/HolidayHoops

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