DENTON -- The loud North Texas chants rang throughout the student section while the Green Brigade held up their keys for Marshall to start the bus with three minutes left in the game.
Roosevelt Smart scored 20 points, Umoja Gibson finished with 19, Ryan Woolridge added 18 and DJ Draper even attempted a one-hand tomahawk late in the game while North Texas dominated Marshall in a 78-51 victory at The Super Pit on Thursday night.
This particular Mean Green (20-4, 8-3 C-USA) team is the fastest in the program to reach 20 wins since the 1975-1976 season.
North Texas post Michael Miller grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds while Zach Simmons posted a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
Thursday night was a step in the right direction offensively for the Mean Green after struggling to score throughout the past two weeks. Tonight, the Mean Green shot 43 percent from beyond the arc and 44 percent from the field.
"We were getting stops on the defensive end and getting great shots on the offensive end," Smart said. "Guys stepped up and made shots today and that was the key to our win."
Marshall (13-11, 6-5 C-USA) came into the game averaging 80.2 points per game, but the Mean Green defense shut the Thundering Herd down. Marshall scored 29 points under their season average while shooting a woeful 28 percent from the field. The North Texas defensive game plan from head coach Grant McCasland worked to perfection.
"It comes down to guarding the ball with [Marshall]," McCasland said. "If you do a great job of staying attached to the ball handler, you give yourself opportunities to make them take contested two-pointers. For the most part, we were able to make them take contested shots."
UNT also out rebounded the Thundering Herd 55-30, and Simmons said the Mean Green have been focusing on crashing the boards after a few disappointing rebounding performances last week.
"We've gotten out rebounded lately," Simmons said. "It's something we've really emphasized in practice. We've just been getting back to our ways, attacking the glass and team rebounding."
North Texas started the game with a lot of energy and jumped out to a 10-point lead. By halftime, the Mean Green had built a 36-26 lead.
Smart did most of his damage at the beginning of the second half when he drained three 3-pointers in less than a minute and a half to give the Mean Green a 45-26 lead. When Smart hit these 3-pointers, the home crowd erupted and all of the momentum went to North Texas.
From that point on, the Mean Green arguably put on their best show since conference play started. North Texas has played in close games throughout the last several weeks, so a comfortable win tonight is exactly what North Texas needed.
The Mean Green will return to action on Saturday at 5 p.m. to host the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers (14-10, 7-4 C-USA). WKU freshman center Charles Bassey is a projected first round 2019 NBA draft pick, so Zachary Simmons and the Mean Green will have their hands full in the paint on Saturday afternoon.
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