University of North Texas Athletics

RUSTON, Louisiana  — After taking a 14-point lead into the half at Louisiana Tech who entered Saturday's game 14-0 at home, the Mean Green basketball team was outscored 46-19 and lost 66-53.

The game featured a return from injury by North Texas senior Jorden Duffy and redshirt sophomore Jahmiah Simmons. 

"We got off to a great start," said head coach Grant McCasland. "I thought our defensive energy was tremendous. We were able to control the tempo. The second-half we didn't get stops and couldn't get in transition. And then as the second-half went on they were eating us up defensively."

North Texas (20-8, 8-7 C-USA) was held without a field goal for a 10-minute and 16-second stretch in the second-half. At the start of the run, LA Tech (18-10, 8-7 C-USA) trailed by 11 points but had a six-point lead right before the Mean Green finally were able to drop in a field goal and slow down the bleeding, however, North Texas never took back the lead and instead the Bulldogs gradually increased it to as many as 16 points.

The 19 points scored by UNT in the second-half in Ruston is its fewest for a second-half this season.

Junior Roosevelt Smart led the team in scoring with 12 points but was held scoreless in the second-half.

Duffy, who last played over a month ago on Jan. 19 versus Rice — nine games ago — was inserted in the starting lineup and finished with nine points on 4-of-5 shooting. Since Duffy went down, the Mean Green are 3-6.

Simmons, who was hurt in the first minute of the Mean Green's win over Marshall on Feb. 7, also scored nine points and grabbed six rebounds. The nine points are his most in conference play and the most he's scored since he scored nine at New Mexico on Dec. 18.

"It was great having Jahmiah and Duffy back," McCasland said. "They help us out a ton and are going to be huge for us moving forward but it's funny, even adding those two guys you could tell we ran out of gas."

The lack of gas was emphasized by a season-high 21 turnovers for the Mean Green, which led to 25 LA Tech points off them. Eighteen of those 25 points off turnovers for the Bulldogs came in the second-half. 

North Texas returns home next week to play its final two home games of the year. On Thursday they host Florida Atlantic at 7 p.m. at the Super Pit and then Marshall on Sunday at 3 p.m. 
 
CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
The 2019 Air Force Reserve C-USA Basketball Championships presented by Baylor Scott & White Sports Performance Center at the Star will be held in Frisco March 13-16 at the Ford Center.

C-USA Championship all-session passes for all UNT games are available exclusively from the North Texas Ticket Office, and all revenue from the passes goes to UNT Athletics. For information on purchasing all-session passes, visit meangreenpostseason.com or call the ticket office at 940-565-2527.