DENTON – Well, it happened again. North Texas lost their fifth consecutive game while struggling on offense during Thursday night’s 60-54 loss to the Florida Atlantic Owls (17-12, 8-8 C-USA).
“I thought we got outcoached,” North Texas coach Grant McCasland said. “I thought they were more physical than we were for 40 minutes.”
The loss dropped UNT to No. 8 in the Conference USA standings, trailing Marshall and Florida International by half a game.
“We have to continue to believe that we’re going to win, period,” McCasland said. “That’s where we’re at as a program and as a team. When you play that bad, people start feeling like they have to do it on their own. We’re not going to be good like that.”
This was the second time UNT matched up against FAU in three weeks. On Feb. 13, the Owls defeated the Mean Green 57-47 and held North Texas to a season-low in points.
Tonight, North Texas continued to struggle on offense, shooting 32 percent from the field and just 28 percent from the 3-point line.
“We’re still struggling to try and get back into a rhythm the way we want to play the game,” McCasland said. “It looks choppy and we look stalled. We don’t have a flow to the way we’re playing the game and there’s not a cohesive attack."
Junior point guard Ryan Woolridge has been the facilitator of this UNT offense all season until he was sidelined with an injury in the first game against FAU.
Woolridge returned tonight and shot 3-for-10 from the floor before having to sit out the last 10 minutes of the second half. McCasland said the injury tonight was the same knee tendinitis that has caused Woolridge to sit out the last three games.
Freshman guard Umoja Gibson led all scorers with 18 points while shooting an efficient 5-of-9 from beyond the arc.
FAU started the game with a six-point lead before the Mean Green responded with an 11-0 run of their own to grab a 12-6 lead during the first half.
“We got stops and were able to play in the transition,” McCasland said. “We got some baskets without having to play in the half-court and then when we got into the half-court game, they physically took it to us and made layups at the rim while we missed baskets at the rim.”
“We’re going to have to share the basketball and constantly put pressure on defenses.”
At this point, it looked as if North Texas would finally ride the momentum to a win. Unfortunately for Mean Green fans, that wasn’t the case.
UNT started to struggle from the floor as FAU crept back to take a 28-23 halftime lead.
Florida Atlantic continued to play a tight defense and extended their lead to 16 points with just under seven minutes remaining in the first half. However, Gibson went on a 9-0 run by himself to put the Mean Green back in contention at the last media timeout.
Roosevelt Smart hit a fadeaway 3-pointer to put North Texas within four points with just 17 seconds remaining, but that would be as close to the lead the Mean Green would get.
UP NEXT:
North Texas (20-9, 8-8 C-USA) plays host to Marshall for the second time this season. In their last matchup, the Mean Green ran away with a 78-51 victory, which happened to be UNT’s last win. This will be a key game as Marshall leads North Texas by half a game in the C-USA standings.
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