DENTON – North Texas held a three-point advantage over 25^th-ranked Rice at the half, but the Mean Green were outscored by 15 after the break in a 59-47 loss despite Terriell Bradley moving up to sixth all-time in the scoring charts Saturday inside the Super Pit.
 
Bradley scored a team-high 10 points for the Mean Green to increase her career total to 1,365 points and move her past Brittney James. Bradley's 10 points happens to be the lowest total for a UNT high-scorer this season. Charlene Shepherd tallied nine points, and Grace Goodhart added eight. 
 
After averaging 78 points over a three-game win streak in their past trio of games, the 47 scored by UNT (14-12, 7-7 C-USA) versus the Owls (23-3, 14-0 C-USA) is the second lowest output in conference play this year, second to only the 46 accumulated in the loss at Middle Tennessee Jan. 26.
 
The 3-pointer that pushed Bradley into sixth on the charts also handed the Mean Green their largest lead of the contest at 37-30 at the 4:03 mark of the third quarter. UNT then went scoreless for over six minutes as Rice went on a 12-0 run with Nancy Mulkey, the imposing Owl post, scoring eight of her game-high 24 points. 
 
"I would have liked to handle the one on one with Mulkey better. She's 6-9 with range, and made some outside shots. She had a night, unfortunate for us. I told the team we need to take this, learn from it, and grow from it," head coach Jalie Mitchell said.
 
A jumper by Trena Mims and a Bradley free throw brought UNT to within 42-40, but Rice ended the game on a 17-7 run to take the victory.
 
The Mean Green and Owls stayed even throughout the first quarter with Goodhart knocking down a pair of three pointers for a 12-12 tie at the end of the period. In the second, Shepherd took a pass from Mims for a layup and then sank a jumper to hand North Texas their first lead of the contest at 16-14. UNT scored six straight before Rice rattled off the same with the Mean Green holding onto a 22-21 edge. Shepherd banked in a jumper to conclude the first half for a three-point North Texas lead.
 
"Our players and staff believe we can beat Rice and play with anybody in this league. I thought we played hard for 40 minutes, and I think we will be prepared to win as many games as possible," Mitchell said.
 
The Mean Green return to The Pit March 2 to host WKU at 5 p.m. for their final regular season contest of 2018-19.