North Texas advances to the College Basketball Invitational Tournament on the backs of Roosevelt Smart and Jorden Duffy each scoring 31 points in perhaps the most complete game the Mean Green have played in this 2017-2018 season. North Texas will face off against the Jacksonville State Gamecocks on Wednesday, March 21st at 7:00 PM in the Super Pit in Denton, TX. Scores by Period 1st Half 2nd Half Total Mercer 31 36 67 North Texas 47 49 96 New Starting Lineup Appears to be Big Hit The starting combo of Woolridge, Duffy, Smart, Miller, and Simmons has produced 186 points in two games at a pace opposing teams have not been able to keep up with. In the past two games, the Mean Green have outscored their opponents by a total of 42 points.

North Texas finds yet itself battling it out in an ugly slugfest, this time with Rice Owls in the final game of a three game homestand. In the first half, neither team was able to find much of a groove, with both teams scoring a mere 51 combined. The second half is where the fireworks really started with shots finally falling, numerous lead changes and ties, and the outcome of the game not being decided until the final seconds when Ryan Woolridge hitting one of his two free throws to put the Mean Green up by 4 with 8 seconds left in the game. Scores by Period 1st Half 2nd Half Total Rice 25 45 70 North Texas 26 48 74 Allante Holston Provides Spark for a Mean Green Comeback Allante Holston had himself

The Cardiac Kids pull out yet another close game, this time against the Florida International Panthers. The final 15 seconds of overtime may have provided a great thrill but may have also taken a few minutes off of many Mean Green fan lives. FIU's Beard was closely guarding Woolridge and Ryan lost the dribble where the ball squirted across the court. Ryan collected the ball and passed it off the an open D.J. Draper who drilled what would be the game winning 3-pointer with about 6 seconds left in overtime. Scores by Period 1st Half 2nd Half OT(1) Total FIU 35 26 6 67 North Texas 29 32 8 69 Draper Playing a Larger Role Off the Bench This Season D.J. Draper has seen his playtime increase this season to over 14 minutes and 4.4 points per

North Texas started off slow once again and finished strong with some solid defense and above average free throw shooting. To up the degree of difficulty, Roosevelt Smart didn't make a single field goal in the game due to foul trouble that started early in the first half of the game. Scores by Period 1st Half 2nd Half Total FAU 24 29 53 North Texas 26 33 59 Lawson Breaks Slump With 18 Points to Lead the Team A.J. Lawson has been struggling as of late, averaging just 7 points per game in conference play. Against FAU, we got to see some of the slashing to the basket we frequently saw him do as a freshman. He's been struggling with a wrist injury on his shooting hand for most of the season, so hopefully

North Texas picked up its first Conference USA win of the season with a dominating win against the Old Dominion Monarchs. North Texas showed why it has the leading Scoring Defense (50.7 PPG), Field Goal Percent Defense (36.1%), Turnover Margin (+7.53), Average Turnovers per Game (20.9/game), third in Steals (9.87/game), third in block shots (3.93/game), and fourth in scoring margin (+10.7 points). North Texas held Old Dominion under its season average of 54.4 PPG, only allowed 3 made 3-pointers (6.3/game), and forced the Monarchs to commit more turnovers than normal (15.7/game versus 23 vs NT). North Texas finished with a turnover margin of +10 on the game, above its season average. Scores by Period 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total Old Dominion 7 17 10 12 46 North Texas 12 21 20 10 63 Terriell Bradley lead all scorers with 23 points

North Texas fell in another close game in the closing seconds as late costly turnovers stopped the comeback bid against the then leading Old Dominion Monarchs. Free throw shooting was also problematic where the Mean Green shot a sub-par 58.6%, which is below the season average of 65.7%. Scores by Period 1st Half 2nd Half Total Old Dominion 38 25 63 North Texas 30 30 60 Roosevelt Smart again lead North Texas with 14 points where he was three of 12 (25%) from the floor where all three of his made shots were 3-pointers where he was three of 10 (30%). He was also five of six (83.3%) from the free throw line. Smart leads the team with a 89.3% at the charity stripe. Smart also collected two defensive rebounds on 33 minutes

In a series that has seen more than its fair share of closely contested games, this Friday night affair proved to be no exception. North Texas got off to a slow start, tied up the game by the end of the second quarter, got a few steps behind the Owls in the third and trailed by as much as 12 in the fourth quarter. North Texas battled back and took the lead late into the fourth quarter on some key defensive plays that lead to some big points. Poorly timed fouls late into the fourth quarter are what ultimately did North Texas in as Rice made 7 free throws on 10 attempts in the fourth quarter, more than they shot for

In the post-game interview, Coach McCasland said that the more aggressive team (Charlotte) won and I would agree with him. North Texas looked sloppy throughout much of the game and committed some silly turnovers that resulted in lost scoring opportunities. North Texas must clean up these errors if it wants to better compete in Conference USA now that we've entered into the second half of the season. McCasland has this team headed in the right direction but there are still some blemishes that need to be worked on. This game was a bit of a disappointment in that the game appeared to be one of the more better attended games so far this season. The floor seats were the most full

North Texas started off Conference USA play with a slow start against the LaTech Bulldogs and fell short in a comeback attempt late in the game. Terriell Bradley and Micayla Buckner were the only players to get into double figures. North Texas seemed to make a lot of uncharacteristic turnovers while at the same time not forcing the other team to do the same. Lauren Holmes was also not involved in scoring shooting just 7.1% (1 for 14) from the floor. North Texas is a young team with three starters being freshman. The Mean Green will get better but when your second team leading scorer has a touch night, other members of the team need to step up to fill the

North Texas squeaked out their second straight conference road win, 72-71. North Texas previously beat UTEP two days prior in El Paso. With this conference win, the Mean Green have now matched last season's conference win record. With a 9-6 record, the Mean Green just need 7 more wins to finish above the .500 mark for the regular season, which is quite doable. https://twitter.com/UNTCoachGMac/status/947330176211353600 Scores by Period 1st Half 2nd Half Total North Texas 34 38 72 UTSA 41 30 71 Sophomores Leading the Charge! Ryan Woolridge, A.J. Lawson, and Roosevelt Smart all finished the game in double figures -- 18, 14, 22 respectively. Ryan Woolridge played one of his better games finishing with 18 points, 3 assists and just a single turnover. He was 7 of 11 (63.6%) from the floor and was 2 of 4 (50%) from