North Texas beats Rice

[CMJ]

After the UTA loss and the Kendrick Davis injury, this one is a good win.

[GreenBat]

Any win is a good win!!!

[Mad Hatter]

Nice to see the win!!!

GMG!!

[keith]

Great job Guys. Way to bounce back...on the road to boot.

Keith

[MeanGreenBuzz]

Huge win, especially lacking KD. Whats Rice's sagrin?

[Keith7]

North Texas 71 Rice 69

HOUSTON (AP) -- Calvin Watson scored 26 points, including five of North Texas' last six, for a 71-69 victory over Rice on Saturday.

After Rice (2-2) closed to within two with 51 seconds left, Watson hit a jumper and three free throws in the final 30 seconds.

Michael Sturns made one-of-two free throws with six seconds left to extend the Mean Green lead to 71-67 and seal the win.

The Mean Green had their biggest lead at 65-52 with 6:01 remaining following a Quincy Williams lay-up, but Rice went on an 11-0 run over the next 5:10 to close within two at 65-63 with 51 seconds left. Morris Almond scored seven in the run, and Paulius Packevicius capped the run with a lay-up.

North Texas (3-1) used a 17-4 run over a six-minute span in the second half to grab a 52-44 lead. Quincy Williams and Watson combined for 15 points on the run, and Sturns capped the run with a jumper with 11:27 left in the game.

Sturns finished with 21 points, and Williams added 11 for North Texas.

Morris Almond was the only Rice player in double-figures with 38 points.

The score was tied at halftime, 33-33.

[chrisfisher]

I am soooooo happy to see these stats.... in previous post, I called on Quincy Williams as the big man who needs to step up. Quincy did so big time against UTA, and once again against Rice. It sounds like Sturns was on fire too!!!!!

[UNTflyer]

Huge win, especially lacking KD.  Whats Rice's sagrin?

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158.

[chrisfisher]

Calvin Watson... 26 points... yes! Our team responded to K.D.'s absence.... no doubt.

[GMoney]

I was the first to call the UTA loss a bad loss, but this was a great way to bounce back. It's especially nice considering it was on the road. Now, we've got to show we are making the next step forward and respond well to success. This needs to be built upon with a CONSECUTIVE positive showing.

[NT80]

I am soooooo happy to see these stats.... in previous post, I called on Quincy Williams as the big man who needs to step up.  Quincy did so big time against UTA, and once again against Rice.  It sounds like Sturns was on fire too!!!!!

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So why is Sturns and Quincy not starting? Stewart starts and scores 0 points?

BTW, UTA lost to TCU in double overtime today...they may not be as bad as we thought. Tulsa beat UALR at home by 6 today, Tulsa comes to Denton Tues. night.

Edited November 19, 2006 by NT80

[chrisfisher]

So why is Sturns and Quincy not starting?  Stewart starts and scores 0 points?

BTW, UTA lost to TCU in double overtime today...they may not be as bad as we thought.  Tulsa beat UALR at home by 6 today, Tulsa comes to Denton Tues. night.

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Make no mistake about it. We beat ourselves, not UTA. We gave them every chance to win and they only did it by 2. I take nothing away from UTA, though, they made their shots and won.

Quincy and Sturns have both been hit and miss over the past season. However, the last 2 games Quincy and Sturns have earned their way into a starting role, IMHO. I hope to see them both start at the next game.

[NT03]

So why is Sturns and Quincy not starting?  Stewart starts and scores 0 points?

BTW, UTA lost to TCU in double overtime today...they may not be as bad as we thought.  Tulsa beat UALR at home by 6 today, Tulsa comes to Denton Tues. night.

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I think UTA is a very good team and maybe we just got a bit too cocky after the WIN vs a good UNCC team. I wouldnt be surprised at all if UTA goes on to WIN the SLC and goes dancing this year. Their young coach looks like he has a bright future.

[Eagle1855]

I went to the game last night and I enjoyed watching our team

Couple scattered thoughts...

I think the uniforms look great.

Wooden was pretty ineffective. We didnt have an answer to their big man. Williams had moments, but we need a dominant force down low.

Sturns played some good defense, had a couple good shots.

Pretty disappointed with our free throw shooting.

Calvin Watson was on FIRE. Some of the 3's he hit were several feet behind the line!

Rice is a scrappy team. They played tough D all night and gave our guys fits inside

This might have been one of the most poorly officiated games I have ever seen, both ways. We got some terrible calls, and several went against us. Everyone around me seemed pretty frustrated it

This was the first game i had seen since last year's home game with south alabam... team looks to be a lot better

[IslandEagle]

I went to the game last night and I enjoyed watching our team

Couple scattered thoughts...

I think the uniforms look great. 

Wooden was pretty ineffective. We didnt have an answer to their big man. Williams had moments, but we need a dominant force down low.

Sturns played some good defense, had a couple good shots.

Pretty disappointed with our free throw shooting.

Calvin Watson was on FIRE. Some of the 3's he hit were several feet behind the line!

Rice is a scrappy team. They played tough D all night and gave our guys fits inside

This might have been one of the most poorly officiated games I have ever seen, both ways. We got some terrible calls, and several went against us. Everyone around me seemed pretty frustrated it

This was the first game i had seen since last year's home game with south alabam... team looks to be a lot better

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I was at the game on the first row with an excellent view. I agree with much of your assessment, but I disagree with you view on Wooden. We wouldn't have won without him in there and we got into trouble each time he went out for a rest. Offensively and on free throws he was ineffective, but he pulled down some of the biggest and most crucial rebounds in the game. And, although he did have some lapses, there were times when he shut down the middle quite effectively. I was only a few feet from the west basket and was able to watch the action there very closely.

[Eagle1855]

I was at the game on the first row with an excellent view. I agree with much of your assessment, but I disagree with you view on Wooden. We wouldn't have won without him in there and we got into trouble each time he went out for a rest. Offensively and on free throws he was ineffective, but he pulled down some of the biggest and most crucial rebounds in the game. And, although he did have some lapses, there were times when he shut down the middle quite effectively. I was only a few feet from the west basket and was able to watch the action there very closely.

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I see your point, perhaps the lapses just stuck out more in my mind

I think I was sitting right behind you guys, on the 3rd row. Good to see fellow mean green faithful! I couldnt find anyone that wanted to go to the game with me, so I had to go solo!

[IslandEagle]

I see your point, perhaps the lapses just stuck out more in my mind  

I think I was sitting right behind you guys, on the 3rd row. Good to see fellow mean green faithful! I couldnt find anyone that wanted to go to the game with me, so I had to go solo!

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Likewise, good to see you there. A few of our fans were scattered around, though not as many as in 1995. Fortunately, this one turned out better than the 95 game, which we lost by 2 points. By the way, we lead the series against Rice, 7-3.

[MeanGreenBuzz]

One thing I can say after reading the box is Rice is a 1 man team. I can't believe they didn't beat us with one player getting 38 pts and 12 reps. His stat line looked like something that should have come from an NBA box score.

[jwynn05]

What makes this a great win for us is that it was on the road. If we can learn to win games on the road and defend our home court, we can become a pretty good basketball team. Now lets make it 2 years in a row over Tulsa. Go Mean Green

[IslandEagle]

One thing I can say after reading the box is Rice is a 1 man team.  I can't believe they didn't beat us with one player getting 38 pts and 12 reps.  His stat line looked like something that should have come from an NBA box score.

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From Lindy's College Basketball: "If you don't think Owls coach Willis wilson did a little jig when guard Morris Almond decided to forgo the NBA and play his senior year in Houston, you just don't know basketball. Alonzo can score from anywhere on the court, rebounds well and plays pretty good defense. "

If we had Almond, along with our players, we'd be a top 25 team, or better. Poor Almond just didn't have the support. We would have crushed Rice if they didn't have Almond.

[untwillrise]

From Lindy's College Basketball: "If you don't think Owls coach Willis wilson did a little jig when guard Morris Almond decided to forgo the NBA and play his senior year in Houston, you just don't know basketball. Alonzo can score from anywhere on the court, rebounds well and plays pretty good defense. "

If we had Almond, along with our players, we'd be a top 25 team, or better. Poor Almond just didn't have the support. We would have crushed Rice if they didn't have Almond.

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My sister kept saying that. Why was he there. But this year he is going to improve his stock, they might not win a lot but his stats will look incredible.

[UNTLifer]

I made it out to the game, and it would have been nice to have a visitors section. Anyway, here are my thoughts on the game.

1. Autry Court reminds me of the old Men's Gym a little. It they could fill that place up and keep the fans involved it would be a tough place to play.

2. Almond is the real deal.

3. Woodson looks like he is playing on one leg, and I'll agree with Eagle 1855 that he was pretty ineffective.

4. Watson played better than I have ever seen him play.

5. Sturns was impressive and played pretty much under control.

6. The new uniforms look great.

7. Why does JJ let the opposition go on runs without calling timeouts to potentially stop these?

8. We are very athletic and played good defense.

This was a game of runs with us holding on at the end to win. If we continue to grow and mature, this could be a special team.

[NT80]

Rice lost at home to Oregon in overtime tonight by about 6 points. Oregon is picked 4th in the Pac10.