Women’s Hoops Sets Program Record for Wins in Victory Over Rice

[cousin oliver]

HOUSTON – The UNT women’s basketball team collected it’s 22^nd win of the season marking the most wins in a single season in program history by taking down Rice, 63-54, Saturday afternoon at Tudor Fieldhouse.

 

Tina Slinker’s 2001-02 team previously held the milestone with 21 wins, including the postseason. This year’s team surpassed the mark with one game to play in the regular season.

 

DesiRay Kernal recorded her fifth consecutive double double with 22 points and 10 rebounds in the win. Her 3-pointer with 3:40 left in the fourth quarter gave the Mean Green the final lead of the game that they would not relinquish.

 

Entering the game, Rice was 14-2 when leading with five minutes left. At that point, Rice led 50-48, but shortly after UNT would go on a 17-4 run that included Kernal’s 3-pointer that closed out the Owls. UNT shot the ball well the entire game but hit a different level of efficiency in the final 10 minutes of action converting 72.7% of its shots.

 

Sixteen UNT turnovers in the first three quarters played a large role in allowing Rice to build a lead. The Owls had 14 points off turnovers and grabbed 21 offensive rebounds leading to 16 second-chance points. Suffy Ngulefac led the Owls with 13 points, tripling her season average of 4.4 points per game.

 

Tommisha Lampkin reached double digits despite getting into foul trouble early. Jaylen Mallard and Aniyah Johnson played important minutes off the bench in place of Lampkin. Mallard played 18 minutes and recorded two points and two rebounds, while Johnson tallied six points and a pair of boards in 16 minutes.

 

UNT’s win keeps it in the running for a regular season conference title with Tulsa and Temple. The Mean Green are 12-5 in conference play, which ties the most conference wins in a season in program history. With the victory, UNT also secured a double bye at the American Athletic Conference championship tournament.

 

North Texas will wrap up the regular season Tuesday night in Denton when it hosts Memphis. The Mean Green will host Senior Day ceremonies prior to Tuesday’s 6:30 p.m. tip.

 

Quoting Head Coach Jason Burton

On the fourth quarter run:

“When you look at it, they shot 27 more shots than we did, we shot 50% from the free throw line and they outrebounded us. We had to have an incredible stretch to win this game and we dominated the game in the last five minutes. We showed grit and stayed locked in.”

 

[UNT86]

Playing for a share of the conference title vs Memphis at home.

Make plans to be there.

I think our last conference championship in Women's basketball was 1986.

 

[UNTLifer]

We have to start taking care of the ball and hitting our FT’s. Rice could have easily won this game. Really like this team’s work ethic and attitude. Never out of a game. 

[Zeleny' Orel]

Channel 8 gave a "shoutout" to our WBB program's record-setting number of wins on last night's sports segment. Was nice to hear it publicized in the local media.  Now let's beat Memphis and get part of the conference championship!  GMG