DENTON (12/28/02) Four players on the North Texas men’s basketball team (5-5) scored in double figures to lead the Mean Green past Texas A&M-Commerce (8-2) 82-74 Saturday at the Super Pit.
NT’s Chris Davis collected his third double-double of the year with a season-high 26 points and team-best 10 rebounds. Michael DeGrate poured in 14 points and Will Smith added 10 to turn in their best offensive performances of the season as well. Jerome Rogers reached double-figures in the scoring column for the fourth time this season with 12 points.
The first five minutes of the game saw four ties and two lead changes, but North Texas took a 12-10 lead at the 14:48 mark of the first half and didn’t relinquish it the remainder of the game. North Texas led by seven points (38-31) at halftime and opened the second half with a 5-0 run to grab its largest lead of the night at 43-31 with 18:52 remaining in the contest. The Lions were able to cut the Mean Green lead to just five points on several occasions, the last being 74-69 with 3:18 left in the game, but got no closer.
Both teams committed at least 25 fouls, resulting in 30 free throw attempts for the Lions and a season-high 40 for the Mean Green. However, North Texas connected on just 24 of those attempts for a .600 percentage from the line and TAM-Commerce hit just 19 of their attempts for a .633 percentage.
The Mean Green outrebounded the Lions 43-36 and hit 48 percent of their shots from the floor in comparison to TAM-Commerce’s .417 shooting percentage.
The game was a brief break from the road for North Texas, which is in the midst of a six-game stretch that includes five contests on the road. The Mean Green will be on the road for the third time in the last four games when they play at Baylor on Monday (8 p.m.).
