Feb. 26, 2016

The North Texas men's basketball team will play its final road game of the season at Southern Miss. Saturday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. (photo by Rick Yeatts). 

North Texas men's basketball at Southern Miss.
Date | Time	Saturday, Feb. 27 | 7:00 p.m. CT
Location	Hattiesburg, Miss. | Reed Green Coliseum (8,095)
Stream	C-USA Network
Live Stats	Southern Miss. Game Tracker
Radio	MGRN - 88.1 KNTU-FM, 95.3 KHYI-FM - Dave Barnett (PxP), Hank Dickenson (Color)
Twitter	@MeanGreenMBB
Game Notes	North Texas |

DENTON -- The North Texas men’s basketball team will look to split its final road trip of the season Saturday, Feb. 27 at Southern Miss. starting at 7 p.m.

The Mean Green played its best road game of the season coming 21 seconds away from pulling off the upset at LA Tech. The Bulldogs managed to send the game into overtime and came away with a 73-62 victory. NT had a 59-57 lead but a missed free throw and an ensuing layup from LA Tech’s Alex Hamilton sent the game into overtime. Junior Deckie Johnson led the team with 20 points and classmate J-Mychal Reese added 18 points. Sophomore Jeremy Combs had another monster game with 15 points and grabbed 18 rebounds passing former NBA standout Kenyon Martin for most rebounds (186) in Conference USA games only.

Just three games remain in the race for the Conference USA regular season championship. The Mean Green sits in a three-way tie for ninth place. Southern Miss. only has three games remaining in their season due to a self-imposed 2016 postseason ban.

North Texas is 6-9 in league play but holds an impressive 5-2 record at home against C-USA opponents. NT is hoping to end its road campaign with a victory against the Golden Eagles to setup two home games to finish the regular season next weekend.

Combs leads the team in scoring at 15.7 points per game and in rebounding at 10.9 per game. The Dallas native is 12th in the nation in rebounds per game and 11th in total rebounds (306). Combs is closing in on a couple of North Texas single-season records sitting sixth best with 306 rebounds and seventh best in field goal percentage at 60.1.

Reese is second on the team in scoring at 15.0 points per game and leads the team in assists at 4.0 per game (110 total). His 110 total assists is 11 shy of 10th best in school history with at least four games remaining. Johnson is third at 14.7 points per game and has hit a team best 65 made three pointers. His 65 triples is currently tied for seventh best and is five away from being fourth all-time.

As a team, North Texas is 93rd in the nation in field goal percentage (45.6), 14th in free throw attempts (746) and 57th in free throws made (474).

The Mean Green will end the regular season with home games against Old Dominion (March 3) and Charlotte (March 5) next weekend.

Opponent: Southern Miss.
• This will be the 25th meeting between the two teams with the first meeting coming on Dec. 18, 1950. The Mean Green snapped a nine-game losing streak to Southern Miss. earlier in the season.

• In the last meeting on Feb. 4, North Texas led wire-to-wire outscoring the Eagles 41-to-28 in the second half to run away with a 70-54 victory at the Super Pit. J-Mychal Reese led the team with 19 points and Jeremy Combs had 14 points. Ja’Michael Brown added 12 points off three of five from the three point line.

• Southern Miss. comes in with a 7-19 overall record and is 4-11 in league play having lost seven straight C-USA games starting with a road loss at North Texas on Feb. 4 to start the losing streak. USM lost in overtime, 76-74, to Rice on Thursday night.

• The Eagles are led by Kourtlin Jackson who leads the team in scoring at 13.0 points per game and is coming off a 31-point effort against Rice. Jackson made six three pointers and played 41 minutes. Jackson also leads the team in rebounding at 4.6 per game. Khari Price is second on the team in scoring at 10.3 points per game

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