MIAMI — Down to just six players, the Mean Green men's basketball was forced to play four guys the entire game on Saturday at Florida International. They were within five points with three and a half minutes to go, but couldn't get it done as they lost 69-59 to the Panthers.

The loss is North Texas' third in a row heading into Conference USA Bonus Play. They will wait for the conclusion of the rest of the league's games to find out who and where they play next Saturday for the first of the four-game Bonus Play.

"Give FIU a lot of credit, on Senior Night, (Brian) Beard Jr. played really well but I've never been more disappointed in a loss, because I wanted our guys to win for their effort," said head coach Grant McCasland following Saturday's loss to FIU. "It's heartbreaking, because our guys competed and did what we asked them to do."

With just six bodies, DJ Draper, Michael Miller, Umoja Gibson and Roosevelt Smart were all forced to play the entire 40 minutes on Saturday for North Texas (20-7, 8-6 C-USA). It was the first time in their careers that they'd had done that. 

Draper led the Mean Green with 19 points, which tied a season-high for the redshirt junior. Smart scored 15 points in his 40 minutes and Gibson dropped 14 points with four three-pointers. His fourth three-pointer set the school record for most threes by a UNT freshman, 78. It breaks Chris Davis' 1999-2000 freshman season record of 77.

Despite the lack of people, North Texas outscored FIU (16-11, 7-7 C-USA) in the second-half and held Beard Jr. to just two points in the second-half after he scored 20 in the first. 

As a team, the Panthers made 10 first-half three-pointers, which was more than any team had made against North Texas for an entire game.

"Unfortunately we made the decision to go under ball screens on Beard to keep him in front of us and that's on us as a staff," McCasland said. "It eventually turned our way in the second half and we executed well defensively and handled their defensive pressure well and I'm really proud of our team's effort but also couldn't be more disappointed."

To make things tougher on the Mean Green, FIU full-court pressed the entire first half and entered Saturday's game leading the nation in tempo, which factors how quick you score and the opponent. 

North Texas handled the pressure well, only turning it over 12 times, which is almost half as many as Panther opponents were averaging heading into the game. UNT worked the shot clock to its final seconds and slowed the game down as they held FIU to 14 points below its season average. According to Ken Pomroy, North Texas held FIU to just 60 possessions on Saturday, which is 13 less than its previous low. 

With three minutes left in the game, North Texas worked a once 15-point deficit down to just five. Draper squared up and shot a corner three-pointer with the opportunity to cut the deficit to two points and give UNT all the momentum but the shot ringed in and out. After the miss, Beard raced down and scored his only points of the second-half on a layup.

With his layup, the air was taken out of UNT's comeback and FlU buried the Mean Green.