Game 9 • Tuesday, December 18, 2012 • 7:00 p.m.
UTA Mavericks (1-7, 0-0) at
North Texas Mean Green (2-6, 1-0)
Denton, Texas
The Super Pit (10,032)
Radio: KNTU • TV: None 
Series Record: Tied 20-20
Last Meeting: North Texas 66 UTA 47

DENTON, Texas - After 12-day layoff, the North Texas women's basketball team is back in action Tuesday night as they host metroplex rival UTA at 7 p.m. North Texas and UTA will meet for the 41st time in series history. The series is knotted up through 40 games at 20-20.

Last season the Mean Green blew out the Mavericks 66-47 in Arlington to begin the season.  For 13 straight years, North Texas and UT Arlington were both in the Southland Conference, but the squads have met just three since North Texas left the Southland in the 1996-97 season. North Texas has won two of the last three meeting.

The Mean Green is coming off a three-point loss on the road to No. 13 Oklahoma. North Texas is 1-2 at home this season. Five of the six losses for North Texas have been by five points or less. UTA has had two weeks between games as they last played on December 4. The Mavericks have dropped three straight games and are 1-4 on the road this season.

Freshman Alexis Hyder continues her dominating performances this season as she notched her second double-double of the season against No. 13 Oklahoma. Hyder leads North Texas in scoring and rebounding and ranks 16th in scoring and 9th in rebounding in the Sun Belt Conference in each category.

Hyder is shooting 54.3 percent from the floor this season, which is tied for 46th in the nation. However Hyder has the third highest field goal percentage in the nation among freshman

North Texas came as close as it ever has to upsetting its first ranked team in school history at Oklahoma. The Mean Green lost by three points, but led by as many as nine in the second half in Norman. The loss for North Texas is the fifth by less than five points this season. Those five losses have been by a combined 22 points this season.

Hyder and Loryn Goodwin have made a significant impacts for the Mean Green in a number of ways. The pair have combined to score 21.2 points a game, Goodwin has a team leading 26 steal while Hyder is second with 19.

Hyder leads the team in scoring while Goodwin ranks 40th in the nation in steals, in addition she is second on the team with 12 3-pointers this season.

A freshman has not led the team in scoring since Jalie Mitchell during the 1998-99. Goodwin remains on pace to break the all-time record for most steals in a single season at North Texas.