Men’s basketball loses fourth straight despite career night for J-Mychal Reese
North Texas junior point guard J-Mychal Reese (52) drives toward the basket to put up a two point floater against Idaho. Colin Mitchell | Intern Photographer
Torie Mosley | Staff Writer
Mean Green men’s basketball dropped its fourth straight game after starting the season 2-0, falling 93-71 to the University of Northern Iowa in its first road contest.
The road team kept up with UNI (5-1) throughout the first half with freshman guard Ja’Michael Brown scoring eight points and three assists. Junior guard J-Mychal Reese added eight points and four assists leading the Mean Green in the first half.
North Texas (2-4) actually led 43-41 at halftime, but a 25-10 UNI run to start the second half blew the lead wide open for the home team.
“We took care of the ball better in the first half, but in the second half we started to turn the ball over more,” head coach Tony Benford said. “We’ve got to work on the little things to get better as a team to be more consistent.”
Reese gave North Texas its best performance with 19 points and six assists but didn’t feel satisfied with the team not being able to keep up with the UNI offense.
“I think I did alright, but it doesn’t mean anything without a win,” Reese said. “We got away from being patient on offense in the second half, and that’s what beat us the most.”
This was the first time both of these schools have ever played each other. Northern Iowa came into the matchup on a four game winning streak and the Mean Green had already dropped three games in a row.
The 22-point difference made the defeat the worst loss of the season so far for North Texas.
“We have to make sure we execute better even though we still had some good things going offensively,” Benford said. “We had 30 points off the bench and shot almost 70 percent in the first half, but Northern Iowa’s a great team. They got the best of us tonight.”
The Mean Green committed 15 turnovers in the contest and had issues keeping UNI out of the paint. The Panthers went 24-for-28 at the line and continued to extend their lead the entire second half.
“They got some quick shots up to start the second half,” graduate forward Eric Katenda said. “I wish I could’ve gotten on the court more to help the team, but I got into foul trouble early.”
UNI was favored to win the game after coming in ranked No. 32 in the nation and second among mid-major teams. The Panthers even upset No. 1 ranked North Carolina over a week ago.
North Texas will have until Thursday to attempt to break its current losing streak, facing off against another tough opponent in the University of Texas at Arlington, who sits at 5-1 on the season.
“We have a few days to regroup and get ready for UTA,” Benford said. “We need to work on a lot of things to get our game where it needs to be.”
Featured Image: North Texas junior point guard J-Mychal Reese (52) drives toward the basket to put up a two point floater against Idaho earlier this season. Colin Mitchell | Intern Photographer
There are no comments at the moment, do you want to add one?
Write a comment