North Texas (6-9, 1-3 SBC) vs.ULM (2-8, 1-3 SBC)
Jan. 5, 2013 • 7:00 p.m.
Denton, Texas • The Super Pit (10,500)
Radio: MGRN - 88.1 KNTU-FM, 95.3 KHYI-FM
TV: None • Webcast: MeanGreenSports.com
Series: ULM leads 28-23 • Streak: NT has won 10 of 11
Last Meeting: NT won 86-51 on Feb. 16, 2012 in Denton
GAME NOTES
DENTON, Texas – Tony Mitchell has been a force since his arrival at North Texas, but his performances after the turn of the year have become legendary. The sophomore will look to provide another dominating performance and another Sun Belt victory when he and the Mean Green host ULM on Saturday night at 7 p.m.
Counting Thursday night’s 29 point, 15 rebound, four block outing against Troy, Mitchell is averaging 17.0 point, 11.8 rebounds and 3.4 blocks in 18 career games after the holidays. Add in a 56.2 shooting percentage and a 45.0 percent clip from 3-point, and you can see why he helped NT advance to a third-straight Sun Belt Tournament final last year.
Mitchell is just the second player in North Texas history to reach the century mark in blocks, and is now just 10 blocks shy of the NT record. The sophomore has 109 career blocks (2.9 per game), and has his eyes set on Jeffrey Simpson’s school record of 119 set from 2004-06.
Just 15 games into the season, NT’s injuries have already accounted for 19 individual games missed in 2012-13. NT, which lost Brandan Walton for the year and Justin Patton for the first the season’s first month, will be without the services of point guard Chris Jones indefinitely.
Jordan Williams, who has reached double-figures in each of his last four outings, has brought his game inside the 3-point line. Three-pointers accounted for 48.6 percent of Williams’ shot attempts last season, but the sophomore has cut that to 34.8 percent this year. That’s a telling stat considering that Williams is a career 50.0 percent (96-of-192) shooter inside the 3-point arch.
ULM leads the overall series with the Mean Green 28-23, but NT has had a stranglehold on the matchup in recent years. ULM took one from the Mean Green in 2010-11, but North Texas has won 10 of the last 11 meetings in the series dating back to 2007. The average scoring margin in those games is 14.1 points in favor of NT, and includes a 72-40 game that was the largest loss in Fant-Ewing Coliseum history at the time.
