Congrats Dez Willingham, Tonight's Player Of The Game

[ADLER]

The final score actually makes the game look closer than it really was. The Mean Green led by nearly 30 throughout most of the contest.

DENTON (12/20/07) – Powered by a huge first half, the North Texas men’s basketball team blew past Centenary, 76-54, on Thursday night at the Super Pit.

The Mean Green tied the third-best 10-game start in school history with an 8-2 record. NT improved to 6-0 at home and trails the series with the Gentleman, 11-10. Centenary falls to 7-5.

For the second straight game, four Mean Green players scored in double figures. Dez Willingham led all scorers and tied a season high with 14 points. Keith Wooden and Collin Dennis posted double-figure numbers for the second consecutive game with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Tristan Thompson scored in double digits for the fourth time with 10 points.

The Mean Green continued to have a hot hand shooting from the field. North Texas shot over 48 percent from the field for the third straight game. Against Centenary, NT was 27-for-56 for the game and shot 63.3 percent from the field in the first half.

Willingham led the explosive North Texas offense from the start, scoring eight of NT’s first 14 points to put the Mean Green ahead, 14-4. The closest Centenary came to the North Texas lead was five points, 17-12, before the Mean Green went on a 24-6 run.

Quincy Williams scored four unanswered points towards the end of the run with a dunk and then got around a Centenary defender on a breakaway for a layup. Willingham capped the run with his fourth three-pointer of the night to extend NT’s lead to 41-18 with 3:33 left in the first half.

In the first half, Willingham was a perfect 5-for-5 from the field and 4-for-4 from three-point range.

North Texas held Centenary to 24 points at the half, the fewest points allowed since the Cameron game. The Mean Green held Cameron to 21 points in the first period. NT also controlled the boards, 21-10.

Williams led the Mean Green on the boards with nine rebounds. He contributed nine points on the offensive side. With its 41-30 advantage on the boards, North Texas has out-rebounded every opponent this year.

The Centenary defense tightened up in the second half, holding the Mean Green to 29 points. The Gentleman outscored the Mean Green in the second half by one point, 30-29.

North Texas opens conference play on the road with a match-up against Denver on Saturday, Dec. 22 at 5 pm.

Mean Green Sports

[chrisfisher]

"The Centenary defense tightened up in the second half, holding the Mean Green to 29 points." ......... Total B.S. We emptied the bench for a good part the 2nd half and played with line ups never/rarely on the floor. I thought they were going to send in the water boy at one point.... I wish JJ showed no mercy and finished the demolishing of Centenary.

Edited December 21, 2007 by chrisfisher

[chrisfisher]

Dez is staring to become the shooter we thought he would be.... congrads Dez!

[THOR]

why is there a pic from the osu game??? i hate that about meangreensports.com (if that's where you got this from) i've emailed them many times about the fact that their homepage pic never matches the game they are reporting....is it that hard???!!!!! by the way, i've never got a response...

[ADLER]

"The Centenary defense tightened up in the second half, holding the Mean Green to 29 points." ......... Total B.S. We emptied the bench for a good part the 2nd half and played with line ups never/rarely on the floor. I thought they were going to send in the water boy at one point.... I wish JJ showed no mercy and finished the demolishing of Centenary.

Really, what good would it do us to beat Centenary by 50? Tonights game gave the starters a chance to relax a little and also allowed the reserve players a chance to get some quality minutes. The schedule is about to become much tougher as Sun Belt play starts this week.

[chrisfisher]

Really, what good would it do us to beat Centenary by 50? Tonights game gave the starters a chance to relax a little and also allowed the reserve players a chance to get some quality minutes. The schedule is about to become much tougher as Sun Belt play starts this week.

I agree with you and with coach Jone's strategy to empty the bench... but I think our decrease in offensive output in the 2nd half is more a credit to this, then to "Centenary's tightened defense." Moreover, even with our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th stringers playing throughout half 2, Centenary only managed a whopping 30 points. We clearly dominated Centenary, and were basically playing around with them for much of the 2nd half. As the Pit Crew called out.... we turned that team into a Cemetery.

[GrandGreen]

Some thoughts on Centenary game.

Centenary did tighten up in the second half. The Centenary coach slowed up the game, ditched his three guard lineup and went with

a front court going 6'8, 6'9 and 6'11 much of the second half. He was not going to win with this group but it did keep the score down and kept Centenary from being totally embarrassed. NT played lethargically in the second half with JJ being content to set on a big lead and spread the playing time around. I thought it was interesting that Centenary started 3 guards all 6' and under but were not able to keep up with the Green.

It was great to see NT jump on a team from the tip off. Thanks in a large part to Dez, who was on fire in the first half. The downsides to the NT's performance was too many turnovers, less than average free throw shooting, and little offense from the front court other than Wooden. Williams was stellar on defense and the boards, but he just has not found an offensive game this year. Stewart actually displayed more offense than usual with his normal high energy game. Hogans and Howerton both played like freshmen. NT big men did have a great number of blocks, many of which our apparently "asleep at the wheel" official scorer did not recognize.

If it were not for Josh White's phenomenal start, NT fans would be much more exited about Thompson's play. Could he be the second best freshman in the Belt? Bell continues to excel and I wish Dennis could get more minutes. I think McCoy is trying to impress too much, understandable with his limited minutes; but he has the ability to really help this team without forcing his offensive game.

In summary, another good victory for NT; Centenary is not a bad team with victories over La Tech, SMU and Texas Tech. Their only other blow out loss by a similar score was at Baylor. NT should have no problem with Denver, but I am always leary of games played there.