todays DRC..C Davis ill, no Davis no win.

OldTimer · February 23, 2003

Men's basketball: No Davis, no win

Senior falls ill as Mean Green falls, 70-60

02/23/2003

By Tim MacMahon / Staff Writer

North Texas senior swingman Chris Davis watched the final home game of his college career from the sideline Saturday night at the Super Pit.

DRC/Hiroyuki Komae

North Texas guard Rusty Chiles, right, fights for a rebound against South Alabama's Marques Ivy in the first half of the Mean Green's 70-60 loss at the Super Pit Saturday.

Davis did not play in the Mean Green’s 70-60 loss to South Alabama because he was suffering from flu symptoms. The 6-5 swingman, who needs 76 points to break the school’s career scoring record, dressed out and was honored along with the other seniors in a pregame ceremony but never removed his warmups.

"I had a hard time holding back tears on the bench," said Davis, who leads UNT in points, rebounds and assists. "I cried a whole lot when I realized I wasn’t going to play. I wanted my fans to see me play one more time for North Texas, but it wasn’t meant to happen."

It was the first time Davis, who went to the hospital because of dehydration after playing 36 minutes in UNT’s loss Thursday night to New Orleans, missed a game since receiving a medical redshirt as a true freshman. Davis said he decided not to play after feeling extremely sluggish when he tried to warm up about an hour before the game.

"I’ve known him to play hurt and sick before," UNT coach Johnny Jones said. "It had to be something that was really tough for him not to go. You could see in his eyes how bad he wanted it."

The Mean Green (7-18, 2-11), which has two regular-season games remaining before the conference tournament, clinched last place in the Sun Belt West Division with the loss, its 11th in the last 12 games.

A 3-pointer by senior point guard Lee Green gave the Mean Green its final lead of the game, 40-39, with 14:16 remaining. The Jaguars (12-13, 6-8) responded with a 20-6 run, during which forward Richard Law had eight of his 14 points.

South Alabama power forward Henry Williams had game highs of 20 points on 9-of-10 shooting and 10 rebounds. Guard Chris Young added 19 points, including a pair of 3-pointers during a run of 11 unanswered points in the first half.

Senior forward Jermaine Green led UNT with 13 points, five of which came in an 12-4 spurt that cut the lead to four with 1:58 to play. South Alabama scored the last seven points of the game.

"We made bad decisions, shots didn’t go down and we allowed that team to get out of here with a win tonight," Jones said.

Jermaine Green and Lee Green, the two other scholarship seniors, refused to use Davis’ absence as an excuse.

"Everybody’s got to be ready to step up," said Lee Green, who had eight points on 2-of-9 shooting. "We didn’t do that. We didn’t step up as a team."

TIM MACMAHON can be reached at 940-566-6870.