ROCK HILL, SC (12/7/02) - The North Texas men's basketball team (3-2) handed Winthrop (4-4) a 65-56 setback in the championship game of the Brothers Heat And Air Shootout on Saturday to claim its first regular-season tournament title since 1975.
Jerome Rogers finished with a team-high 16 points, leading three North Texas players scoring in double figures. Jermaine Green collected his second double-double over the last three games with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Leonard Hopkins, who scored a career-high 24 points against Weber State in NT's first game of the tournament, finished with nine against Winthrop and joined Green on the all-tournament team.
North Texas trailed 32-31 after the first 20 minutes of action, but tied the game twice over the first five minutes of the second half and took a 43-42 lead with 13:22 left in the contest. The Mean Green opened up its largest lead of the game, 55-44, at the 9:10 mark of the second half. Although Winthrop crept back within four points, 58-54, with 2:40 remaining, it got no closer.
North Texas struggled to a .417 free throw percentage, but hit 11-of-23 three-point shots. Lee Green, who finished with 12 points, and Rogers both hit four shots each from behind the arc to lead North Texas' long-range attack. North Texas also crashed the boards for a season-high 49 rebounds and ended with 10 more boards than Winthrop. Chris Davis finished the tournament with a combined 21 rebounds and 12 assists, both team highs.
North Texas, now 3-2, is off to its best start through five games since opening the 1994-95 season 4-1.
The Mean Green wrapped up a five-game stretch away from the Super Pit to open its season, but now faces TCU on Dec. 10 in its first home contest of the year. The game will be played at 7 p.m.
