RICHMOND, Va. – In front of the 136th consecutive sellout crowd in VCU's Siegel Center the Mean Green men's basketball team took the nation's 25th best team down to the final shot. They held a one-point lead with 5:26 left in the game but ultimately fell to the Rams 59-56.
 
"We felt like we gave ourselves a chance to win and we're extremely disappointed that we didn't," head coach Grant McCasland said. "I was proud of our guys' fight in the second half. Credit to VCU for being tremendous and tough and getting to the foul line when they needed to and making big shots."
 
The Mean Green (1-1, 0-0 C-USA) jumped out to a 19-14 lead early in the first half thanks to an 8-0 run, but the AP no. 25 Rams (2-0, 0-0 Atlantic 10) would feed off the crowd of 7,637 to go on a 20-0 run that lasted over eight minutes and would never trail by more than a single point the rest of the contest and head into halftime up 10.
 
Redshirt senior DJ Draper led all North Texas scorers with 12 points followed by junior Zachary Simmons who added 10 with six rebounds.
 
Despite the double-digit deficit North Texas was able to chip away at the lead all throughout the second half. Draper would hit a three in transition late in the game to put the Mean Green up one, but that would be the last lead they had.
 
The Mean Green outscored VCU 35-28 in the second half and cut down on the 13 first half turnovers which resulted in 16 VCU points to just five second-half turnovers resulting in four VCU points.
 
VCU dominated the time with a lead as they held one for nearly 28 minutes of the game, the Mean Green would have the lead for less than nine minutes.
 
Redshirt sophomore Umoja Gibson took over point guard responsibilities in the second half when junior Javion Hamlet got into foul trouble and would dish out three assists with only two turnovers in the half. Gibson finished the game with seven points and five assists.
 
"I thought Mo was unbelievable in the second half running the point," McCasland added. "To get out of here and have five assists and only two turnovers was just really the difference in the game."
 
Gibson had four huge free throws in the late in the game to keep the Mean Green within a basket of the Rams, but his three point attempt at the end of the game would fly wild giving the Rams a narrow victory.
 
North Texas will be back in action on Tuesday when they head to Fayetteville to face Arkansas.