Game 7 • Friday, December 2, 2011 • 5:00 p.m.
North Texas Mean Green (4-2, 0-0 Sun Belt)
at Oregon State Beavers (5-0, 0-0 Pac-12)
Houston, Texas • Tudor Fieldhouse (5,750)
Gene Hackerman Invitational
Radio: KNTU 88.1 FM • TV: None
Series Record: First Meeting

Live Audio • Live Stats • Twitter Feed

Game 8 • Saturday, December 3, 2011 • 5:00 p.m. or 7 p.m.
North Texas Mean Green (4-2, 0-0 Sun Belt)
at Rice Owls (4-3, 0-0 C-USA) OR
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders (2-5, 0-0 SLC)
Houston, Texas • Tudor Fieldhouse (5,750)
Gene Hackerman Invitational
 Radio: KNTU 88.1 FM • TV: None

Live Audio • Twitter Feed

Mean Green Take On Gene Hackerman Invitational
North Texas, looks to continue its hot start at the Gene Hackerman Invitational, hosted at Rice's Tudor Fieldhouse. The Mean Green take on Oregon State in the opening round, and play either Rice or Texas A&M Corpus Christi in either the Consolation Game at 5 p.m. Saturday, or the Championship at 7 p.m. Despite only being six games into the season, North Texas can match their win total from 2010-11 with one more victory this season.

Briefly On The Mean Green
• North Texas can match last season's win total with one more win
• The Mean Green defense has improved 295 ranks, to 26th in the nation, the largest improvement in the nation.
• Laura McCoy is one of only six qualified players in Division I to have made every free throw this season. At 18-of-18, only one other player has made more free throws without a miss this year.
• Tamara Torru was named Sun Belt Player of the Week on Nov. 29 by both the Sun Belt and College Sports Madness. She set her career-high with 26 points at Arizona on Nov. 28.

North Texas vs. Oregon State
North Texas has never played Oregon State. This is North Texas' second straight game against the Pac-12, which the Mean Green has a record of 1-4 against. North Texas plays two Pac-12 opponents in one season for the first time in its history. North Texas beat Washington State 87-85 at The Super Pit on Dec. 30, 1988 for its only win against the Pac-12.

North Texas vs. Rice
Rice leads the all-time series against North Texas 2-1. North Texas' win against Rice was a 66-59 win on Jan. 2, 1990 at the Super Pit. North Texas has not played in Rice's renovated Tudor Fieldhouse, its only trip to South Main was to Autry Court in 1986-87, a 75-69 loss. NT's Brittney Hudson is a Rice transfer, who averaged 3.5 points and 3.0 rebounds for the Owls in 2007-08. Hudson played 9 minutes and had two rebounds against the Mean Green in a 69-65 North Texas loss to Rice in 2007-08 in the adidas Winthrop Classic.

North Texas vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
North Texas is 6-2 all-time against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and have won the last two meetings, a home-and-home in 2007-08 and 2008-09. The Mean Green and Islanders played every year in the non-conference from 1999-00 to 2004-05, before resuming the series for two years in 2007-08.

McCoy One Of Six Players Nationally Perfect From Line
Laura McCoy is 18-of-18 on the year in free throws, and is one of six qualified players in Division I to have not missed a free throw this season. Only Green Bay's Julie Wojta (21-for-21) has made more free throws than McCoy without missing. As a freshman, McCoy only went 5-of-8 on free-throw shooting. In addition to McCoy, Ash'Lynne Evans (5th, .867) and Desiree Nelson (12th, .786) rank in the top 15 of the Sun Belt in free throw percentage, while North Texas ranks 3rd as a team.

Torru Named Sun Belt Player of the Week
Tamara Torru was named Sun Belt Player of the Week by both the league's coaches and College Sports Madness on Nov. 29. She scored 20+ points in back-to-back games for the first time in her career, scoring 22 at Texas State on Nov. 25 before setting a career-high with 26 at Arizona on Nov. 28. At Texas State, she scored North Texas' first eight points, helping the Mean Green to a 8-3 lead to start the game, and helping the Mean Green to a 61-43 victory. At Arizona, she poured in a career-high 26, while earning her second double-double of the season with 12 rebounds. She is the only North Texas player to have scored 10+ points in every game this season.

Mean Green Features Nation's Most Improved Defense
North Texas' defense is the most-improved in the nation, improving from 73.3 points per game, which ranked 321st in the nation in 2010-11, to 26th in the nation this year, at 54.2 points per game, improving by 19.1 points and 295 ranks. New head coach Karen Aston brings the defensive emphasis from her previous job in Charlotte, where she coached her teams to allow 60.2 points per game the last two seasons.

NT Defense the last 2 years Charlotte defense the last 2 years
Year Points FG% Year Points FG%
2009-10 78.5 43.8 2009-10 60.3 32.4
2010-11 73.3 41.9 2010-11 60.1 35.6

2011-12 54.2 35.9

Mean Green Off To Fast Start
North Texas had its first 2-0 start since 2005-06, and first 4-1 start since 2005-06, with Karen Aston taking over the reins of the program. Aston joined Tina Slinker as the only two coaches in North Texas program history to win a debut game, with a 66-47 road win, and joins Slinker as the only coaches to start their North Texas career 4-1. North Texas has started the season 2-0 in road games, their best start on the road since 2000-01. The Mean Green allowed 256 points in its first five games, the fewest amount of points allowed through five games in program history.

Crashing The Boards
North Texas is owning the offensive glass this season, having a 43.3% offensive rebounding percentage (101 offensive rebounds, 132 defensive rebounds allowed), which leads in the Sun Belt Conference. The Mean Green have scored 92 second-chance points on offensive rebounds, and have only allowed 43 second-chance points on 79 offensive rebounds allowed.

50-Sense
North Texas has held opponents to 50 points or fewer four times this season, which is the most times an opponent has been held to the half-century mark or less since 2005-06. North Texas held opponents to 50 points or fewer just three times in the span from 2008-11. North Texas held its opponents to 50 or less seven times in both 2004-05 and 2005-06, which is the school record.

Who Is Gene Hackerman?
The Rice women's basketball tournament is named after Gene Hackerman, the wife of former Rice University and University of Texas President Norman Hackerman. Gene was active in promoting women's atheletics at Rice, before her death in 2002 at age 84. Although she did not have a college degree, Hackerman felt right at home in the Rice and UT academic circles and was very popular as a first lady at both schools with her kindness and hospitality. (Source: Houston Chronicle)

Hudson Steals The Show
Brittney Hudson leads the Sun Belt Conference and is 65th nationally with 3.2 steals per game. She has 19 total steals, and is just four off her career high of 23, set in 2009-10. She is on pace to nab 96 steals this year, which would be only one off the North Texas single-season record.

Nien, Nien, Yes!
Jasmine Godbolt picked up two straight double doubles, against SMU on Nov. 22 and at Texas State on Nov. 25, after just missing on picking up a double-double in the two games prior to that stretch, picking up double-digit points and nine rebounds in both games. Godbolt has come one rebound away from picking up a double-double eight times in her career.

Mustang Savvy
North Texas came away with s 50-46 win over SMU on Nov. 22, marking the first win for North Texas over the Mustangs since 2005-06. Prior to the 2011-12 academic year, no North Texas program had beaten SMU since football's 24-6 win over the Mustangs in 2006, but soccer and women's basketball have pulled out wins against the Mustangs this year. Karen Aston is now 2-0 against SMU boss Rhonda Rompola, with Aston winning a 2008-09 season game with Charlotte. Laura McCoy had one of the best games of her career against SMU, putting up career-highs in rebounds (8), assists (4), and set a season-high in points (9) that game. McCoy seems to enjoy playing the Ponies, her career-high in points was also set against SMU, scoring 12 points against them in 2010-11.

It's Not How You Start, It's How You Finish
Despite going without a point for the first 9:32 of the game, and digging a 9-0 deficit, North Texas came back to beat SMU 50-46 on Nov. 22. The win is the biggest comeback victory for North Texas since it overcame a 13 point deficit to beat Nicholls State on Dec. 13, 2010. North Texas first took the lead in the game at 19:25 of the second half, when Laura McCoy made a 3-pointer to go up 23-22.

Torru Seeing Double-Double
Tamara Torru had the second double-double of her career at UT Arlington (13 pts, 12 reb) on Nov. 11, helping the Mean Green to a 66-47 victory. Torru grabbed 12 rebounds at UTA, just one short of her career-high 13, and reached 10+ rebounds for only the third time in her career. Torru is the first North Texas player since Erika Bobo in 2005 to open the season with a double-double. She also tied a career-high with three assists.

North Texas Faces Daunting Schedule
North Texas' schedule includes 12 home games, plus marquee non-conference showdowns with New Mexico, SMU and Alabama coming to the Super Pit, and games against Oregon State, Arizona and Texas away from home. The rugged schedule contains 13 games, plus a potential 14th in the Rice Tournament, against teams which made the WNIT or NCAA Tournament last season.

The Super Pit Is It
The Mean Green won its five of its last six non-conference home games dating back to the start of 2010-11, and have won seven of its last nine non-conference home games in the Super Pit, dating back to 2009. Since 1998-99, North Texas is 104-55 (.654) in all games at The Super Pit.

NT Records At Home Since 1998-99
1998-99: 10-0
1999-00: 11-2
2000-01: 9-2
2001-02: 12-0
2002-03: 5-6
2003-04: 6-6
2004-05: 9-3
2005-06: 11-3
2006-07: 6-5
2007-08: 9-6
2008-09: 4-7
2009-10: 6-7
2010-11: 4-7
2011-12: 2-1

Game Time Changed For Tulane
North Texas' Dec. 7 home game against Tulane has been moved to 7:30 p.m., from its original game time of 7 p.m. The game time has been pushed back to accomadate fans who want to attend both the football banquet earlier that evening, and the women's basketball game.

Bolting Into The Record Books
Jasmine Godbolt has a chance to enter the record books in numerous offensive categories. Godbolt is only 174 points away from becoming only the 13th player in school history to score 1,000 points. She ranks 10th at North Texas in career rebounds and is 221 away from the school record. Godbolt has made 220 free throws for her career, 2 away from the top-10 in school history, while she already ranks fifth all-time with 415 free throw attempts.

Mean Green Voted Fifth
North Texas recieved one first place vote and was picked to finish fifth in the West Division in the preseason coaches poll. Denver was picked to finish first in the West, and Middle Tennessee was picked to win the East division.

2011-12 Sun Belt Preseason Poll
West Division Points East Division Points
1. Denver 62 (6) 1. Middle Tennessee 68 (9)
2. Arkansas State 56 (1) 2. FIU 58 (1)
3. UALR 53 (3) 3. Western Kentucky 48 (1)
4. Louisiana-Monroe 29 4. South Alabama 38
5. North Texas 28 (1) 5. Florida Atlantic 23 (1)
6. Louisiana-Lafayette 24 (1) 6. Troy 17

Torru Shoots The Three
Senior Tamara Torru led North Texas with 28 3-pointers last season and has a chance to break into the top-10 all-time at North Texas. Torru has 53 3-pointers for her career and needs only 10 more to enter the top-10 all-time.

Hot Hoops In Hot Springs
For the fourth consecutive season, the Sun Belt Conference Tournament will be held in Hot Springs, Arkansas at the Summit Arena & Convention Center. The format features all 12 teams going to Hot Springs. The top two teams from each division will earn byes into the quarterfinals. The women's tournament will be held from March 3-6. North Texas' Coaches Show is on the day preceding the tournament, March 2, from Lucky's in Hot Springs.

North Texas On The Tube
The Sun Belt Network televises three North Texas women's basketball conference games this season. The Jan. 15 game at ULM game begins at 2 p.m. on the Sun Belt Network. The network televises a home double-header with the men's basketball team against Arkansas State on Jan. 28, at 7 p.m., which will also be live on Cox Sports Television (CST) and Comcast Sports Southwest (CSS). A home double-header on Feb. 18 against Louisiana-Lafayette tips off 1 p.m. followed by the men's game at 3:30 p.m, both televised on the Sun Belt Network.

North Texas Inks Five
North Texas signed five players in the early signing period, including two guards, Briana Brooks and Loryn Goodwin, and three forwards in Eboniey Jeter, I'Tiana Taylor and Acheil Tac. Brooks (Tyler Robert E. Lee HS), was named first-team all-district in her junior year, posting 15.5 points and five assists per game. Goodwin (Cypress Falls HS) was named was named TGCA All-State and TBCA All-Region, All-Super Centex team, and was the District 12-5A Offensive MVP in 2010-11. Jeter (Harker Heights HS) averaged 13.9 points and 16 rebounds a year her junior year, en route to being named first team all-district. Tac (Sasche HS) is one of the leading rebounders in the Dallas/Fort Worth area for a forward and was named All-District 10-5A in 2011. Taylor (Pflugerville HS) ranks as the 52nd best power forward in the country by Dan Olsen Girls Basketball Report.

Mean Green Premium
Every North Texas home basketball game this season can be seen on MeanGreenSports.com, the official site of Mean Green athletics, by premium content subscribers. The video will also include KNTU's radio brodcast. The premium subscription gives subscribers access to live and on-demand events on a month-to-month basis. The monthly subscription price is $9.95 or an entire year of Mean Green Premium access can be purchased for $99.95. Video Highlights will also be available on demand along with coaches press conferences.