DENTON — The North Texas men's basketball team ended Saturday's game on a 19-4 run to comeback and beat Rice 76-75 at the Super Pit and extend its Conference USA-best home winning streak to 14 in a row.

The Mean Green's senior Michael Miller made a left-handed layup with 0.6 seconds left to give UNT the deciding lead. The Owls led UNT by 16 points with seven minutes remaining before North Texas went on its run.

"He has that look in his eye," said North Texas head coach Grant McCasland of Miller. "He always believes he's going to make the shot and we're going to win. He was telling it to the guys in the huddle during timeouts.

"This was another great team. We had a mismatch lineup at the end of the game. They made a huge layup but we stayed composed and found a way to win," he added.

For the final two minutes and 30 seconds, the 6-foot-3 Miller was the tallest player on the court for the Mean Green after Jahmiah Simmons fouled out. 

As Simmons departed, 5-foot-10 DJ Draper entered. Less than a minute later with just over a minute left in the game, Draper drew a charge to regain possession. On its offensive possession, UNT (17-2, 5-1 C-USA) grabbed an offensive rebound and senior Jorden Duffy skied to the air to make a layup and bring the Mean Green within one point. 

On Rice's next possession, redshirt freshman Umoja Gibson stole a pass at mid-court as the team pressured the Owls (7-12, 2-4 C-USA). 

The effort and will to win towards the end of the game and accomplish the little things is what McCasland and the team said was the difference.

"We just had the will to win at the end of the game," Duffy said. "Mike, Tope and I as seniors, you never want to lose on your home court as a senior. The opportunity presented itself. So I took over."

Sixteen of Duffy's 19 points came in the second half as he attacked the rim and got to the line, which is where UNT made most of its money in the second half.

In a game that saw a combined 64 free throw attempts and a combined 41 points scored at the free throw line, both easily season-highs for a game UNT has played in this year, the Mean Green limited Rice to just four free throw attempts in the second half, which they made just one of them. The Owls were 14-of-21 at the line in the first half.

 Meanwhile, North Texas went to the line 26 times in the second half and made 17 of them. 

"Duffy took over in the second half," McCasland said.  "But it took everyone to win this one."

In total, the Mean Green had four guys score double digits on Saturday. Along with Duffy's 19, Gibson had 15 points, Ryan Woolridge had 14 points and Miller finished with 12. North Texas now once again has six guys averaging double digits as Duffy had fallen to a 9.9 point per game average last week. They are the only team in the country that has six guys with a double-digit scoring average. Woolridge leads the team with a 12.6 average.

With the win and a UTSA loss, North Texas is in sole possession of second-place in the C-USA standings. They are one game behind Marshall who beat FIU 105-97 on Saturday and is 5-0 in conference play.