Game Coverage From Stillwater

[Smitty]

Early wake-up call for cagers

• North Texas gives O-State 82-73 loss

Jacob Longan - NewsPress

DENTON, Texas — The streak continues.

North Texas defeated Oklahoma State, 82-73, Wednesday to extend the Cowboys’ road losing streak to 13 games.

OSU (1-1) hasn’t won in an opponents’ gym since a 63-61 victory at Kansas State on Feb. 4, 2006 — the final road trip for Eddie Sutton as the team’s head coach.

“I’m not shocked that we lost,” said Coach Sean Sutton, who had noted the Mean Green were an NCAA Tournament team last year. “I’m disappointed we didn’t play better. I thought we’d play better.”

UNT (2-0) trailed for only 70 seconds in the contest that was capped by the Mean Green fans storming the court.

The club’s 6-foot-9, 240-pound senior center, Keith Wooden, tied for the game high with 25 points on 12-of-14 shooting. He added eight rebounds and two blocks.

“Somebody has a great game like that, you can’t expect too much,” said OSU junior point guard Byron Eaton, who scored nine points and added five steals and three assists within shouting distance of his home of Dallas.

UNT’s point guard, 5-10 freshman Josh White — the younger brother of former Oklahoma standout Quannas White — also had 25 points and added six rebounds.

They were the only Mean Green players to reach double figures, but the club won with a 40-35 rebounding advantage while hitting 50 percent of its shots (30-of-60).

The Cowboys made 25-of-66 (37.9 percent).

Senior forward Marcus Dove led the Cowboys with a career-high 23 points and added seven rebounds with four steals.

“Marcus played like a warrior (Wednesday),” Sutton said. “He was our toughest guy out there. I thought he played well at the offensive end.

“The hard work he put in, especially this summer, paid off.”

Freshman guard James Anderson scored 16 points with six rebounds and junior forward Anthony Brown added 10 points and seven rebounds off the bench.

The Mean Green started the game on an 8-1 run and led 32-16 with 8:48 remaining in the first half.

OSU had the deficit down to 51-50 with 16:15 left in the game but UNT responded with a 10-0 run. The Cowboys couldn’t cut the lead to less than four the rest of the way.

“It’s a wakeup call,” Dove said. “It shows us we aren’t as good as we thought we were and there are some thing we need to work on. We’ll go back to the practice court (today) and work on those things.”

The Cowboys will play again Monday when they face LSU at 4 p.m. in the first round of the Maui Invitational. The Tigers (2-0) edged McNeese State, 78-74, on Wednesday.

"UNT (2-0) trailed for only 70 seconds in the contest..." WOW! I knew we led most of the night and throughout the second half, but didn't realize we led for all but seventy seconds.