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MONROE, La. (2/20/08) The North Texas basketball team clamped down on the precision offense of Denver, and blasted up-tempo Troy with a 90-64 beating. Now, the Mean Green turns its attention to ULM and one of the Sun Belt’s top scoring guards in Tony Hooper. The game is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. CST, and can be heard on the Mean Green Radio Network.
The Warhawks are showing signs of coming out of their early season funk in the last three games. ULM topped New Orleans on the road and Denver at home, with its only slip up coming in a buzzer-beating loss at rival Louisiana-Lafayette. Despite taking an elbow to the eye against the Pioneers, Hooper led all scorers with 23 points in the 53-48 victory. The All-Sun Belt guard leads ULM with 15.7 points per game.
The Mean Green and Warhawks are meeting for the 42nd time on Wednesday after North Texas took the season’s first game 78-57. The two schools both joined the Southland Conference in the 1982-83 season and remained rivals until the Mean Green moved to the Big West Conference in 1996-97. The Warhawks joined the Sun Belt in all sports in 2006-07, and own a 27-15 all-time edge over the Mean Green. NT fell in its first nine SLC games against ULM, but won the 1988 conference tournament with an 87-70 win over the Warhawks.
In the last outing versus the Warhawks, Josh White scored 20 and Dez Willingham posted a career-high 19 points to lead North Texas to its first conference win with a 78-57 victory on Jan. 7 at the Super Pit. NT started the game on a 12-0 run, and led by as many as 27 points in the contest. Quincy Williams posted his second double-double of the year with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
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Collin Dennis registered the finest scoring performance by a Mean Green player since 2001 when he dropped 34 points on Troy on Saturday. He is just the eighth North Texas player in the last 20 years, and the 25th overall, to score at least 34 points in a single game.
The Ben Bell to Keith Wooden connection helped the Mean Green punch a ticket to the NCAA Tournament last season, and now both players are on the verge of recording their 500th point at North Texas. Wooden is sitting at 497 points with Bell not far behind at 484.
North Texas and Troy have faced off five times, and the Mean Green is averaging 20.4 assists in those games. NT had a season-high 19 assists in both of the meetings this year, and has set its season highs in each of the last two seasons against the Trojans.
The Mean Green swept three Sun Belt Conference opponents last season, and has an opportunity to do the same with its next three outings. North Texas won the season’s first meetings with ULM, Arkansas State and Louisiana-Lafayette.
