Men's Basketball

Box Score

DENTON, Texas (11/23/10) - Tristan Thompson scored a season-high 26 points, and Shannon Shorter hit four free throws in the final seconds to give the North Texas men's basketball team a 68-65 victory against Rice on Tuesday night at the Super Pit.

The Mean Green improves to 3-1, while Rice falls to 3-2. North Texas leads the series against the Owls, 9-3.

The Mean Green ended the game on a 15-6 run to take the win from the Owls. Thompson scored five points from the free-throw line, and Kedrick Hogans hit three layups, including one with 32 seconds on the clock that put North Texas ahead by three, 64-61. Shorter sealed the win with two trips to the foul line.

The Mean Green shot its lowest field-goal percentage of the season at 39 percent, but posted a season best from the free-throw line. North Texas scored 21 points from the line, making 80 percent of its free throws.

Thompson led all scorers with 26 points. He was 8-for-18 from field-goal range, including three three-pointers. He made seven of eight free throws.

George Odufuwa posted his 19^th career double-double and second this season. He recorded 11 points and a season-high 14 rebounds. Hogans scored eight points, all in the second half. Six of those eight points came in the last three minutes. He also had five rebounds and four blocks.

Lucas Kuipers hit a three at the start of the second half to give Rice its largest lead of the game, 34-26, but the Owls would not score another basket for seven and a half minutes. North Texas, however, would roll on a 15-2 run.

Thompson scored 11 straight points for the Mean Green in a span of two minutes to go from trailing to leading by four, 40-36, at 12:36. After the Mean Green went 0-for-11 from three-point range to start off the game, Thompson hit the team's first three-pointer from the top of the arc at 14:50, cutting the Owls lead to two points, 34-32. The senior went on to score another basket and then two more three-pointers to give North Texas its first lead of the second half.

After Odufuwa hit a jumper at 9:06 to keep NT's lead at three, 48-45, Rice went on a 10-1 run to steal back the lead.

Behind Thompson's free throws and Hogan's play around the basket, North Texas climbed back from a six-point deficit, 59-53, to take a 62-61 lead with 1:37 left in the game. Hogans hit back-to-back-layups, and Thompson sandwiched free throws around the forward to keep the Mean Green in the game.

After going 0-for-12 against Kansas and snapping its consecutive game streak for three-pointers, the Mean Green started a new streak with Thompson's three. Unfortunately, North Texas would hit those three three-pointers. North Texas shot 15 percent from behind the arc, hitting 3-of-19 baskets.

The visitors had better luck from three-point range. The Owls shot 41 percent from behind the arc, making 7 of their 17 attempts. Kuipers made three of those seven three-pointers.

Neither team led by more than five points in the first half, until Rice hit a layup at the end to go into half ahead by six, 31-26. The Mean Green went 0-for-8 from behind the arc in the first half.

North Texas returns to action on Saturday, Nov. 27 when it faces Texas State on the road at  4 p.m.