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Posted

Watson knocks down 16 to lead UNT past Seahawks

12:42 AM CST on Wednesday, November 24, 2004

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

The North Texas men's basketball team completed one of the toughest stretches in its schedule with an impressive performance against a traditional power Tuesday night.

Sophomore guard Calvin Watson paced three UNT players who scored in double figures with 16 points and led the Mean Green to a 76-69 win over UNC Wilmington at The Super Pit.

The Seahawks (1-1) have been to the NCAA Tournament in two of the last three seasons.

"I was very excited about this win," UNT coach Johnny Jones said. "It's a huge win for our basketball program. We beat a quality opponent that has done tremendously well."

The game marked the end of a stretch in which the Mean Green (2-1) played three games in five days to open the season. UNT won its home opener against Angelo State before falling to Alabama, the 18th-ranked team in nation, on Sunday.

Jones said he was concerned about how his team would respond to playing just two days after falling the Crimson Tide on the road.

UNT answered the challenge by jumping out to an early lead and controlling the contest for the majority of the night.

"Coach Jones told us that this team gets to the NCAA Tournament every year and is a good defensive team," UNT senior guard Leonard Hopkins said. "He said that they are a good team, but we could beat them if we ran all through all of our offensive sets."

UNT followed that plan in what Jones described as a solid offensive performance against the Seahawks, who allowed just 57 points in win over Marshall in their season opener.

UNT shot 47 percent from the field and had nine players score in the game.

The Mean Green got off to a good start in the first half and grabbed a 38-30 lead at intermission.

UNT's performance in the first half was a dramatic change from its outing against Alabama when the Mean Green struggled in the first half.

"We ran our offensive sets all the way through and got open looks at the basket," Hopkins said. "We talked about the way we shot the ball against Alabama. We wanted to play like we did in the second half of that game and put two halves together.

Watson hit three 3-point shots late in the first half after the Seahawks had cut what was a nine-point deficit to 21-19 on a T.J. Carter free throw.

Freshman forward Quincy Williams capped UNT's surge at the end of the first half by hitting a 3-pointer on the Mean Green's last possession before intermission. Williams did not attempt a shot from beyond the arc in UNT's first two games.

Williams had his first opportunity when he caught the ball just beyond the top of the arc with one second left on the shot clock.

"I was surprised to see him pull the trigger," Jones said.

UNT's hot shooting touch carried over when junior point guard Isaac Hines and Hopkins hit back-to-back 3-point shots to open the second half to give the Mean Green a 44-30 lead.

"It was real big for us to come out early in the second half and hit those 3-pointers," Hines said.

UNT maintained a comfortable lead the rest of the night and coasted its second consecutive win at home to start the season.

The streak is one UNT will look to build on Saturday when it returns to The Super Pit to take on Lamar.

"Throughout the last few yeas we have been successful at home," Hopkins said. "We want to carry that over to the weekend."

UNC Wilmington draws crowd

UNC Wilmington had a large contingent of fans in the crowd for its game against North Texas.

The group came out to support a pair of players who played at Texas high schools. Senior center Aaron Coombs played at Fort Bend Sugarland, while junior forward Mitch Laue was just miles from his home school, Dallas Bishop Lynch.

Lau received one of the biggest ovations in pregame warm-ups. He finished with a career-high 18 points.

Jones' streak ends

UNT senior Michael Jones saw his streak of games in which he set new career highs in scoring come to an end at two in the Mean Green's game against UNC Wilmington.

The forward scored 16 points in UNT's season-opening win over Angelo State and then tallied 18 in a loss to Alabama.

While Jones saw his streak come to an end he did post another solid performance against UNC Wilmington, scoring eight points and pulling down nine rebounds.

Posted

It's going to be a great year! I think this team has finaly come together and is going to win a lot of games. What I look forward to the most is the tournament, at the pit, and NT has a chance.

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