Box Score 
Feb. 8, 2018
DENTON - Following the Mean Green's fifth straight loss last Friday at UT-San Antonio, head coach Jalie Mitchell and the team sat in the visiting locker room for over an hour.
Not much was really said.
Mitchell did tell the team that "tough times don't last but tough people do."
Thursday at Florida International, North Texas took out all its aggression on the Panthers as they routed FIU 92-46 behind Terriell Bradley's program record-setting nine 3-pointers and a career-high 32 points.
Bradley, who missed her first 3-point attempt, made nine straight 3-pointers following the miss, one shy of the NCAA record. North Texas as a team finished with a program-record 13 3-pointers.
"We were much better offensively and got back to us defensively," Mitchell said. "I really thought we got back to us. We were communicating, we pushed in transition, which was the biggest thing for us. When we can play great defense it can turn into great offense."
From the start, North Texas (12-10, 3-7 C-USA) was nearly unstoppable.
UNT made seven of its first eight shots and by the end of the first quarter had a commanding double-digit lead over the Panthers.
But the game blew open in the second quarter when North Texas went on a 16-0 run, led by nine points from Bradley, UNT pushed its lead to 43-11 over FIU (6-17, 3-7 C-USA).
Bradley, who continued to swish every 3-pointer she took, had 22 points at the half on 8-of-9 shooting. She also scored her 1,000th career point in the second quarter.
"The basket was as big as the ocean," Bradley said. "I couldn't miss."
Bradley, who finished 9-of-10 from deep made her record-setting ninth 3-pointer on a step-back corner 3-pointer in front of her Mean Green bench midway through the third quarter.
"I didn't know how many 3-pointers I had hit until someone told me on the bench I had set the record," Bradley said.
The 92 points by the Mean Green is the most points they've scored under Mitchell in a regulation game. North Texas finished with 27 assists, the most by a UNT team since 1995, which was before Bradley was even born.
Ten of those 27 assists came from junior point guard Brittany Smith who also had zero turnovers. As a team, North Texas had a season-low eight turnovers. Smith is also just the second different Mean Green player to finish a game with 10 assists since 2003.
The defense, though, was tenacious. Midway through the fourth quarter, UNT had made as many 3-pointers--13-- as FIU had total field goals.
North Texas has now held 10 teams to 50 or fewer points this season.
"We ran and we shared the basketball so well," Mitchell said. "That's transition basketball. It's fun."
NEXT UP
North Texas takes the short drive to Boca Raton, Florida, on Saturday where they will take on Florida Atlantic at 7 p.m.