North Texas Daily

Audra Stamp / Intern

Notching a win after breaking a five-game losing streak and setting a new school record in the previous game, the UNT men’s basketball team hopes to begin a new win streak against the University of Louisiana-Monroe tonight.

“We’re excited,” head coach Tony Benford said. “You get a [win], you have some confidence. Every time we step out there we’re playing to win, and we’re trying to continue to get better.”

Last Saturday, UNT (9-17, 4-11) took on Florida International University and shot at a high percentage throughout the game. The team broke the school record by shooting 75 percent from three-point range.

Sophomore guard Jordan Williams opened up the second half with a crowd-pleasing dunk and ended the game with 15 points. Senior guard Roger Franklin and junior guard Alzee Williams also contributed with 21 and 15 points, respectively.

“Last game was something that we can use to start getting our engine going,” Franklin said. “Now I think we really need to press on the gas.”

Prior to the FIU game, UNT struggled to finish in the fourth quarter, leading to five straight losses. Against FIU, the team worked together, passed the ball around and took smarter shots, Benford said.

“The thing for that night, we wanted to make sure we finished,” Benford said. “We’ve played like 30 minutes of good basketball, but we’ve just been kind of inconsistent in the way we played.”

The last time UNT played ULM (3-17, 2-12), the Mean Green allowed five of ULM’s players to put up double digits in scoring, losing 81-68. ULM is ranked just under UNT in the Sun Belt Conference-West Division in last place and is currently on an eight game losing streak.

Taking last game’s win as a turning point, the Mean Green is ready to face off against ULM at 7:30 p.m. in the Fant-Ewing Coliseum in Monroe. The team knows these final games before the conference tournament are important in improving the team’s fourth place ranking in the division.

“We can’t be complacent, we have to keep playing and keep winning games,” sophomore forward Tony Mitchell said. “We have to build momentum going into the conference tournament.”