University of North Texas Athletics
Mean Green Roll To 78-52 Win Over UTA
12/23/2023 4:10:00 PM | Men's Basketball
DENTON — The UNT men's basketball team beat UT Arlington Saturday afternoon 78-52 at the Super Pit.
After dropping the last three games, which were all on the road, the Mean Green returned home and put it all together as they scored their most points in a regulation game this year. Sophomore Jason Edwards scored a season-high 26 points, CJ Noland dished out a career-high five assists and John Buggs III made a season-high four 3-pointers on Saturday.
Newcomer Rondel Walker made his North Texas debut on Saturday. The TCU transfer who started his college career at Oklahoma State had missed the first 10 games of the year waiting to be made eligible by the NCAA due to the two-time transfer rules. With him now cleared to play, the 2020 top 75 high school recruit came off the bench and scored seven points and had two steals in just 14 minutes of action.
"I thought the guys earned this one," said head coach Ross Hodge. "We had a couple really hard practices the last week."
The Mean Green (6-5) who had just four total assists and forced just three turnovers in the game prior versus Mississippi State surpassed that total versus UTA (6-6) by the second media timeout of the first half. North Texas finished Saturday with 13 assists and forced 14 Maverick turnovers.
The Mavs and Mean Green were tied 7-7 five minutes into the game but UNT went on a 20-1 run to break open the score.
UNT scored a first half season high 44 points, made a first half season-high nine 3-pointers and Edwards scored a season-high 20 first half points.
North Texas led by 25 at the break.
"We shared the ball really well and made the easy play." Edwards said, which was also echoed by Walker and Hodge. "It opened things up a lot for us offensively."
Walker who has twice been to the NCAA Tournament and scored a game-high 20 points at Iowa State a couple years ago showed his defensive brilliance on Saturday versus UTA as he seemed to be all over the floor.
"It felt great to be out there," Walker said. "The last 10 games have been really hard but I'm super excited to be playing, especially with this group. We can do something something special."
Next up for North Texas is a home game against LSU Shreveport on Dec. 30. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and the Mean Green Sports Network.
