EL PASO –  A poor shooting night from the outside troubled North Texas as the Mean Green fell 59-51 to UTEP Saturday night inside the Don Haskins Center to wrap up the 2018-19 regular season. UNT will play 2019 Air Force Reserve C-USA Basketball Championships beginning Wednesday as the ninth seed.
 
North Texas (14-14, 7-9 C-USA) struggled from the perimeter with a 5-of-34 showing, but Anisha George led the way in the paint with 19 points and game-high nine rebounds. Terriell Bradley and Charlene Shepherd each scored 10 as Bradley moved into a tie for fifth place in career scoring with 1,394 points. North Texas outscored the Miners (8-21, 5-11 C-USA) in the first and third quarters, but UTEP won the second period by a margin of 22-9. 
 
The Mean Green loss did not impact where the team would finish in the standings entering the 2019 Air Force Reserve C-USA Basketball Championships. Before the game was decided, UNT was slated as the ninth seed to take on eighth-seeded Southern Miss Wednesday at 11 a.m.
 
While the outcome of the game had no bearing on seeding for the tournament, it did prevent North Texas from achieving back-to-back winning seasons. That feat that has not been conquered since the team finished above .500 four seasons in a row from 1998-99 to 2001-02 during head coach Jalie Mitchell's entire UNT playing career. 
 
"It's momentum. Although we led in the first quarter, they had a big second quarter which ended up being the difference," Mitchell said. "We talked about taking care of the ball. We did not play 40 minutes of how we needed to play. You have to make shots. Getting stops is one thing, but we have to make shots."
 
The Mean Green begin play in the 2019 Air Force Reserve C-USA Basketball Championships Wednesday at 11 a.m. against Southern Miss.