Men's Hoops Beats Rice With 17-Point Come Back

Wednesday, March 4

7 PM

University of North Texas

18-13,9-9American

Rice

12-18,6-11American

Rice

North Texas

3/4/2026 10:37:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

DENTON – The UNT men's basketball team made a 17-point come back and defeated Rice Wednesday night at the Super Pit, 62-58, to close out the regular season.

With the win the Mean Green (18-13, 9-9) clinched a spot in the 2026 American Conference Championship and first-year North Texas head coach Daniyal Robinson became the first Mean Green head coach in 50 years to win 18 regular season games in his first season in Denton. His nine conference wins are tied for the second-most by a first-year UNT coach.

UNT's 17-point come from behind win Wednesday was its largest deficit overcome to take a lead and also to win all season.

"Give Rice a ton of credit," Robinson said. "Their backs were against the wall and we knew they'd give us their best shot. The flurry of threes they hit in the first half almost put us away but give our guys a ton of credit. They showed a lot of resiliency and fought like crazy to get this win."

The Owls (12-18, 6-11) jumped out to their 17-point lead with three minutes remaining in the first half. Rice made eight first-half 3-pointers, four of which came from Jalen Smith.

UNT was able to cut the deficit to 10 at the half and in the second half it was sophomore Je'Shawn Stevenson and senior Josiah Shackleford who took over on senior night.

Shackleford recorded his first career double-double as he finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds, eight of which came in the second half. Stevenson was held scoreless in the first half and didn't even attempt a shot until almost 26 minutes into the game. But the guard from Chicago caught fire and scored 15 points to help bring UNT back.

With 3:35 left in the game, Stevenson picked off the Rice pass and took it coast-to-coast to tie the game at 54 and complete the 17-point come back.

UNT's defense also came up big in the second half. They held Rice to just two made 3-pointers in the second half and held the Owls to 1-of-8 shooting down the stretch as they picked up its 12th home win of the year.

Next up for North Texas is the American Championship. With the win Wednesday UNT can still finish as high as the six seed, which earns a first-round bye. However, they will have to wait to see the results of the rest of the league's games this week to find out which seed they will earn. The first round of the tournament begins March 11 in Birmingham, Alabama at Legacy Arena.