Women have fantastic comeback

SUMG · January 28, 2005

(Story from meangreensports.com):

DENTON (1/27/05) - Freshman Erica Howard scored 15-of-her-23 points in the second half, leading the North Texas women’s basketball team to a 63-57 victory against South Alabama after being down by 16 points on Thursday night in the Super Pit.

The Mean Green (9-9, 4-2 Sun Belt) snapped a two-game losing streak and improved its record against South Alabama (9-9, 3-3 Sun Belt) to 8-2. The 16-point come-from-behind victory marked the largest comeback in NT history since 1998 when the Mean Green overcame a 16-point deficit to defeat Pacific, 60-55.

Howard scored 13 points in NT’s 24-7 run at the start of the second half to erase a 16-point deficit and go ahead, 51-50, with 8:37 left in the game. Howard’s career-high 23 points is the most by a North Texas freshman since Jalie Mitchell scored 32 against SMU in 1998.

Junior Erika Bobo scored seven of NT’s next eight points to push the Mean Green’s advantage to six, 59-53, with 2:26 left in the game. The Jaguars were forced to foul, and North Texas made four-of-five free throws to seal the win. Bobo notched her second career double-double with 19 points and a personal-best 11 rebounds.

South Alabama held the upper hand in the first half, jumping out to a 39-23 lead after a 21-6 run. The Jaguars shot 53.6 percent in the first period, compared to NT’s 27.3 percent shooting. USA’s shooting cooled in the second half to 26.7 percent, while the Mean Green made 13-of-31 shots from the field to take the win. NT outscored South Alabama in the second half, 38-18.

North Texas returns to home to face New Orleans on Thursday, Jan. 29 at 7 pm in the Super Pit.

CMJ · January 28, 2005

A really big W for Slinker and company. After the last couple of seasons a .500 record would be an improvement.

UNT_92_Fan · January 28, 2005

the USA coach is a spaz....its ridiculous...did anyone else see the head butt he threw ON THE COURT...i mean he was on all fours slappin the floor and cussing uip a storm and then BOOOM...forehead meet hardwood....it was funny!

meangreendork · January 28, 2005

I didn't spot the headbang on the wood floor, but I did spot the manly #45 and #11 on the USA side. Great comeback by the women; I was really worried that I'd be watching another game go into the L column. It's like they had some sort of transformation between the halves. I noticed that the coverage got a whole lot tighter and more rebounds were being made.

GreenBrigadeDebbie · January 28, 2005

The USA coach was the comedy!! He was all yelling and swearing. There were a couple of us in the Pit Crew that were shouting for the coach to just calm down. Not to mention that every time he swore we shouted kids were present. (There were 4 kids all under 10 years old sitting right behind the USA bench! Not a good impression. )

The headbang on the court was the classic moment of the evening. Only geniuses hit their head on the opponent's home court, right?

Edited January 28, 2005 by GreenBrigadeDebbie