DENTON – North Texas suffered another close loss on Sunday afternoon, which marked their sixth loss in a row. This time, the Mean Green fell to the Marshall Thundering Herd by a score of 85-82.
“I’m really disappointed in the loss for the seniors, who are a great group of men who have helped elevate our program in a short time,” head coach Grant McCasland said. “But I left this game extremely encouraged by the steps we made offensively at times.”
“We have a lot of fight in us with some huge games left to play and I thought today gave us a positive look of where we can go as a group. Unfortunately, we fatigued defensively down the stretch and gave up lots of layups at the basket.”
North Texas struggled without starting point guard Ryan Woolridge. Without Woolridge, McCasland said the Mean Green lacked the depth to run with Marshall in the second half.
“Having Ryan guarding the ball is big for us,” McCasland said. “I think that’s where he provides the biggest benefit to our team. It just takes a toll on a lot of guys to [guard Elmore] for 40 minutes. He requires lots of attention.”
Marshall guards C.J. Burks, Jon Elmore and Taevion Kinsey accounted for 60 of Marshall’s 85 points.
UNT jumped out to a 13-0 lead just three minutes into the game before watching their lead slowly disappear. During the run, Umoja Gibson hit two 3-pointers right after Roosevelt Smart drilled one from deep to open the game.
Gibson finished with 21 points while Duffy finished with 20 points and five rebounds in his last game at The Super Pit.
Marshall closed the gap to four points with seven minutes remaining in the first half, but North Texas ended the half on a 14-6 run to take a 43-31 halftime lead.
Just nine days ago, UNT relinquished a 14-point lead during a loss at Louisiana Tech. Today, the Mean Green saw their 12-point halftime lead disappear in a heartbeat.
The Thundering Herd started the third quarter on a 19-6 run, which was capped off by Taevion Kinsey’s 3-pointer to give Marshall a 50-49 lead, their first of the game.
“They came out with more energy and they were more determined to get back in the game than we were to shut them out of the game completely,” Duffy said.
North Texas had their chances down the stretch to tie the game, but the Thundering Herd – who played their first game in over a week – used their depth and rest to score clutch buckets down the stretch.
Miller kept UNT in this game down the stretch as he converted three different 3-point plays while knocking down contested shots in the paint. He finished with 18 points, six rebounds and six assists.
However, with around 10 seconds remaining on the clock, Miller had an open look from behind the 3-point line at the left wing to tie the game up. However, Miller’s – who had been 6-for-8 from the field in the second half – shot fell short of the rim and into Marshall’s hands.
“We fought hard and should’ve won,” Duffy said. “We just got outplayed in the last stretch of the game.”
UP NEXT:
North Texas travels to Miami next Saturday to take on FIU in the last regular season game before the C-USA Tournament, which starts on March 10.
For updated C-USA basketball standings, click this link:
http://conferenceusa.com/standings.aspx?path=mbball
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