DRC women win 66-57 ties best start in program

[OldTimer]

Women's basketball: UNT ties best start in program

Mean Green fastest to 15 victories since 1985-86 season

09:00 AM CST on Sunday, January 29, 2006

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

North Texas has won 15 games on plenty of occasions in its 30-year history.

It had just been a long time since the Mean Green reached the milestone as quickly as they did on Saturday in a game against South Alabama.

UNT came into its game against the Jaguars on a roll after winning seven of its last 10 and extended the hot streak with a 66-57 victory in a Sun Belt Conference game at the Super Pit.

The win pushed UNT to 15-5 on the season, tying the Mean Green’s best start through 20 games in program history. The Mean Green also started 15-5 in the 1985-86 season, when they made their only NCAA Tournament appearance.

“It means a lot to us to us,” UNT senior guard Mian Williams said. “There is a lot of sentimental value to it for the seniors because we put in a lot of hard work for four years. It’s refreshing to know that we are finally the team to beat.”

UNT, which is now 5-3 in the Sun Belt, came into its game against USA tied for the lead in the SBC West Division with Louisiana-Lafayette. The Mean Green will take on the Ragin’ Cajuns in their next game on Thursday.

UNT will enter that game on a roll after its bench came up with one of its best performances of the season against USA (9-10, 3-4). The Mean Green’s starters spent much of the first half in foul trouble and struggled for most of the night.

Williams started at shooting guard, scored 14 points and was the only UNT player to finish in double figures.

UNT’s reserves helped make up for an off night from the starters by outscoring USA’s reserves 28-11.

“I am very excited about what our young people did coming off the bench,” UNT head coach Tina Slinker said. “Without them I don’t know if we win the game.”

UNT had four players score at least five points off the bench, including sophomore forward Erica Howard who finished with eight points and five rebounds. Junior forward Mia Ajekwu added seven points.

UNT’s bench was particularly important in the first half when the reserves scored 20 points. Freshman guard Tricia Lee scored all five of her points off the bench in the final 2:04 of the first half when the Mean Green went on a 7-0 run to take a 33-23 lead at the break.

Lee converted a 3-point play during the run and then hit a jumper for UNT’s last points of the first half.

“I wanted to come on, play solid defense, handle the ball and get it to the right people,” Lee said.

UNT built its lead to as many as 16 points in the second half before USA rallied to cut its deficit to 63-55 on a Reana Ellis layup with 1:03 left. Ellis, JoAnna Williams and Valencia Boswell all scored 12 points to lead USA.

The Mean Green went 3-for-5 from the free-throw line in the last minute to hold off USA and win their second straight to open a season-long five-game homestand.

UNT had lost three of four before getting back on track with its recent surge that began with a victory over Troy on Thursday.

“The win over Troy helped us take a breath,” Slinker said. “This solidifies it and helps convince me that we are over our slump. Good teams bounce back from slumps, and hopefully that was ours.”

The timing of UNT’s surge couldn’t be much better considering the Mean Green face the prospect of taking on UL-Lafayette on Thursday with the SBC West Division lead on the line.

UNT will enter that game on a roll, thanks in large part to its bench.

“Our bench hit some big shots and played some major minutes,” Williams said. “Our reserves played well on both the offensive end and defensive end. We wouldn’t have won without them.”

Briefly …

North Texas senior guard Mian Williams moved into a tie for ninth place in Mean Green history with 55 3-point field goals after finishing 3-for-3 against South Alabama. Allison Clark (1997-98) and Shanna Stephenenson (1998-02) also made 55 in their careers.

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com .

North Texas 66, South Alabama 57

USA (9-10, 3-4) — Williams 4-10 2-4 12, Woodard 2-6 0-0 4, McDole 3-5 0-0 6, Ellis 4-10 4-4 12, Boswell 5-10 2-3 12, Viverette 0-0 0-0 0, Sanders 0-2 0-0 0, Leonard 2-6 0-2 5, Brown 0-4 0-0 0, Brunner 3-6 0-2 6. Totals 23-59 8-15 57.

UNT (15-5, 5-3) — A. Jackson 4-8 0-0 8, Sanders 1-4 3-3 5, Bobo 2-10 2-4 7, Mireles 1-2 2-2 4, Williams 4-6 3-4 14, Howard 3-9 2-2 8, Lee 2-5 1-1 5, S. Jackson 1-2 1-2 3, Hall 2-3 1-1 5, Wali 0-3 0-0 0, Ajekwu 3-5 1-2 7. Totals 23-57 16-21 66.

Halftime – UNT 33-23. 3-point goals – USA 3-14 (Williams 2-4, Woodard 0-1, Ellis 0-3, Boswell 0-1, Leonard 1-1, Brown 0-1, Brunner 0-3). Fouled out – none. Rebounds – USA 37 (Williams, Boswell, Brown 6), UNT 41 (Sanders, Bobo 6). Assists – USA 9 (Boswell 3), UNT 12 (Bobo 6). Total fouls – USA 16, UNT 16. Technical fouls – Viverette. A – 1,492.