FRISCO - In the first round of the 2018 Conference USA tournament, the North Texas women's basketball team defeated Charlotte, 58-55, on Wednesday at the Ford Center at the Star. The Mean Green advance to the quarterfinals, where they will meet Louisiana Tech on Thursday afternoon.

For the 15th straight game, Terriell Bradley led the team in scoring with 16 points. Lauren Holmes and Grace Goodhart joined Bradley in double-digits with 11 and 10, respectively.

After missing their first four attempts from the field to begin the game, North Texas finished out the first quarter shooting 6-of-8, highlighted by a pair of Holmes three-pointers. Charlotte began the second quarter on a 5-0 run, but Holmes dropped five points on a 9-0 Mean Green run to go ahead 23-17.

North Texas capitalized on 12 first-half turnovers by the 49ers, cashing them in for 17 points. Bradley forced the last one with her first steal, turning it into a layup that capped a 7-0 run to end the half with the Mean Green ahead 36-25.

Charlotte, who was held to 40 percent shooting in the first half, opened the second half making seven of their first nine attempts and six straight to cut North Texas' lead to six. A Micayla Buckner layup snapped a nearly four-minute scoring drought, giving UNT a 48-42 advantage going into the final quarter.

The Mean Green defense put the game on ice in the final quarter with seven turnovers and holding the 49ers without a field goal for more than five and a half minutes. Despite closing the half without a field goal of their own in the last three minutes, Goodhart's three pointer with 2:55 left proved to be the difference-maker.

UP NEXT

North Texas advances to face Louisiana Tech in the quarterfinals at 2 p.m. Thursday.

QUICK HITTERS

• The Mean Green have now won the most games in a season since 2005-06 (16).
• North Texas has forced at least 15 turnovers in all 16 wins this season.
• When leading after the first quarter, the Mean Green are 12-2.